Fever Dream Read online

  Melvin Crew stopped, blinking in the bright sunlight.

  The shots rang out, so close together they sounded like firecrackers, and his father was abruptly punched back into the darkness of the doorway.

  “Dad!” screamed Gideon, leaping over the barrier and running across the hot asphalt of the parking lot. “Dad!”

  Shouts erupted behind him, cries of “Who’s that kid?” and “Hold fire!”

  He leapt the curb and cut across the lawn toward the entrance. Figures raced forward to intercept him.

  “Jesus Christ, stop him!”

  He slipped on the grass, fell to his hands and knees, rose again. He could see only his fathers’ two feet, sticking out of the dark doorway into the sunlight, toes pointed skyward, scuffed soles turned up for all to see, one with a hole in it. It was a dream, a dream—and then the last thing he saw before he was tackled to the ground was the feet move, jerking twice.

  “Dad!” he screamed into the grass, trying to claw back to his feet as the weight of the world piled up on his back and shoulders; but he’d seen those feet move, his father was alive, he would wake up and all would be well.

  Click here

  http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/features/

  feverdream/gideonswordteaser.mp3

  to listen to a preview of the

  Gideon's Sword Audiobook

  by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child,

  coming Winter 2011