Scavenger’s Mission
By
Liza O’Connor
How does one go from Debutante, to street girl, to Scavenger?
As far as Alisha was concerned, debutants were the most useless creatures on earth. Nor were they allowed to choose their friends, or more importantly, their husbands.
Her parents couldn’t care less if she didn’t want to marry the President of the Americas. Never mind the ass was old and gave her the creeps every time she’d had the misfortune to be in his presence. Her father wanted the lucrative connections that came with becoming a part of the President’s family. To ensure a successful engagement, her parents kept the creep from ever talking to Alisha. Her mother even took on the task of entertaining the jerk…mostly in her bedroom.
By checking the house monitors early each morning, Alisha learned her parents intended to drug her that evening and she’d wake up married to the creep. She wasted no time climbing out a window and running back to Capital.
Finding her Gramps took several days, and she wouldn’t have found him at all without the help of Denny, a young, but savvy street kid who had befriended her the day she arrived.
She had hoped her Gramps would take her in, but when she found him, he was nearly dead. Denny stole a Ryder’s wind-catcher so she could take it up and see if she could fly it. If she could, then she could earn serious money as a scavenger.
Alisha was up first time and knew without a doubt that she was meant to ride the skies. Denny kept her Gramps alive for the week she taught herself enough to scavenge. And despite some problems here and there, for the first time in her life, Alisha was happy. And then she crash landed and a colonel of the SkyRyders too her back to his fort…
Scavenger’s Mission
By Liza O’Connor
Blurb
Meet Alisha: A young woman who refuses to live the life her parents want.
In a single month, Alisha Kane has gone from a wealthy debutante to street girl to scavenger. While testing her new flying skills in the Cully Canyon, Alisha incurs a near-death crash landing. She’s “rescued” by a colonel of the SkyRyders and her life changes forever.
Meet Logan: A SkyRyder colonel in charge of a sleepy fort with little to do other than arrest the occasional scavenger.
For the first time in his life, Logan’s attracted to a young woman, only she’s probably a scavenger and he’ll have to arrest her. But first he offers her a shower and food while he checks on his crew. His videographer has captured her extraordinary flight through the Cully and her flying is astounding!
He forgoes arresting her and puts his career at risk by asking MAC to assess her skills and integrity as a potential SkyRyder. If he can get Alisha into the SkyRyders, it will be his greatest contribution to the Corps.
Meet MAC: The Artifical Intelligence that runs the SkyRyders Corps.
Upon seeing her arrival, MAC upgrades Alisha’s test. Her flying skills are not just excellent; they exceed what was previously thought possible. MAC classifies her as its top asset and soon she proves her value.
But…the SkyRyders remain a male dominated Corps where Alisha’s sense of right and wrong often clashes with her superiors. How long can a rebellious young woman survive in a regimented Corps?
Excerpt
Alisha soared into the canyon of Cully River. Rocky cliffs, over a thousand feet high, stood on each side. Farther above, the walls widened, reducing the wind speed, but here, near the water, her wind-catcher traveled at exhilarating speeds reaching nearly two hundred miles per hour due to the narrow wind channel.
Her newly designed slats enabled her to fly just above the water. Previously, at these speeds, without the slats, the smallest snag of her toe against the river’s surface would have sent her rolling to her death.
As she approached the canyon bend, she shifted the angle of her slats so their front tips pressed against her stomach. A moment later, she tugged ever so lightly on the two front panels of her wind-catcher, increasing their lift capability. Her body soared upward as if an invisible hand had reached down and tugged her to a safer level, where the winds were only a hundred miles per hour, so she could survive the deadly bend in the Cully River Canyon.
With a single hard tug on the right toggle, she turned within the wider canyon walls. She smiled, pleased with her modifications to her catcher. She recalled the first time she had run the Cully at night. She’d come within inches of crashing into the granite wall at this bend.
The near-death experience had scared her into avoiding the cliffs for several days while she modified her wind-catcher to be more responsive to turning. Now, with her latest improvements, she possessed such control that next time she planned to take the bend at water level.
Even the idea sent chills down her back. To fly the Cully at night was dangerous, but to take its bend so close to the river…unthinkable! Yet these dances with the impossible made her only more determined to enhance her equipment and improve her flying. Nothing was impossible with the right equipment and flying skill.
LINK
The SkyRyder’s Series, Book 1
Scavenger’s Mission
About the Author
Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.
SCIENCE FICTION
Sci-Fi Soap Opera with humor, romance, and science
Sci-Fi/Romance
The SkyRyders Series
Sci-Fi Romance
Scavenger Falters-coming 2017
Scavenger Vanishes-coming 2017
I loved this book. Liza kept me guessing and the characters were so fun! I could see them clearly in my mind!
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