Neal Shusterman
Shattered Sky
For Keith, Patricia, Terry, Mark, Maureen, Eric, and Jan, who have been there to remind me that it’s not the end of the world!
Acknowledments
Shattered Sky has been a labor of love that could not have been possible without the efforts and support of many people. Thanks to Robby Elfman for sharing with me his heartfelt experiences during The March of the Living. Thanks to Yael Lock and Jeffrey Schrier for Talmudic wisdom and valuable opinions. Grapas a Gabriela Hebin for checking my less-than-perfect Spanish. Thanks to my kids—Brendan, Jarrod, Joelle, and Erin—for being an endless source of joy and inspiration. Thanks to Sharon McKeag, my assistant, for her tireless work, and for being willing to research dubious things like the flash point of human flesh. Thanks to Kathleen Doherty, Tom Doherty, Jonathan Schmidt, and Linda Quinton at Tor Books for their belief in this trilogy and their support of all my work.
The Star Shard Trilogy—and Shattered Sky in particular—is intended for an adult readership. Its themes and subject matter may be too intense for younger readers. That said, I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever written.
PART I -CONTAINMENT
“There were six of us,” he began. His body showed none of the bruises from the ordeal he must have endured. Not a strand of his wavy red hair was out of place, his clothes were immaculate—not even the seams of his jeans showed wear. “Six when it all began. Now there are only three left. Winston, Lourdes, and me.”
The man across the table took out a pad, and began to take systematic notes. He wrote down his impressions, as well as the things the redheaded kid said. That’s all he was, thought the man: a kid. Couldn’t be any older than seventeen. Then why am I so frightened? The man pushed the thought out of his mind, and concentrated on his subject, whose name had been seared into the world’s collective consciousness in a matter of months. A young man by the name of Dillon Cole.