Peter David - Battleship

Immediately the others pitched in and, seconds later, they had the lid clear.

They stared inside.

Their joy turned to shock, and then horror.

And then they ran like hell.

The sun was beginning to set on what was easily the best day of Alex Hopper’s life.

After handling with aplomb all of the congratulations, Hopper and Sam had slipped off to spend the afternoon enjoying each other’s company. They’d hung out at the beach, gotten some surfing in, and were overall celebrating that they were both alive.

Having packed the surfboards onto the back of his truck, Hopper was now driving along a seaside road, with Sam resting her head contentedly on his upper arm. Seagulls were cawing in the distance. He was at total peace and couldn’t remember the last time he felt that way.

He wished Stone could see him like this.

Trying to shake off sad thoughts, Hopper glanced down at Sam. “You look hungry,” he said.

“Oh, no.” She started to laugh. She knew where this was going.

“No, seriously. Tell me you can’t go for a chicken burrito right now. ’Cause I’m starving…”

“Hopper,” she began, but before she could continue, her cell phone rang. She answered it, listened, and then said, “Okay, okay, Dad, slow down. He’s right here.”

“He come to his senses about my new boat?” Hopper asked, only half joking. Then he took the phone from her and put it to his ear. “Yes, Admiral?”

“Hopper, good news, son,” came Shane’s voice. “They found one. They found one alive.”

Hopper slammed on the brakes, the sudden stop thrusting Sam forward with such force that, had it not been for the seat belt, she’d have cracked her skull open. “Hopper, what the hell—”

“Hopper?” The admiral heard that something was going on, but didn’t understand. “Hopper, is there a problem—?”

“Sir…” Hopper licked his suddenly parched lips. “Did you read the debriefing reports…?”

“There’s a lot to wade through, son. I’m about halfway—”

“You’re going to want to jump to the other half.”

“Why don’t you summarize it for me, Commander?”

“No man left behind.”

“What? What does that have to—?” He paused and then, because he was an extremely bright man, Shane started to understand. “Are you saying—?”

Hopper nodded even though Shane couldn’t see him. “When one of their… ‘people’… fall… if they’re still alive, then they’ll come back for him.”

“They’ll come back.”

“I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in Harm’s Way.”

Battleship

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Spider-Man 3

Spider-Man 2

Spider-Man

The Incredible Hulk

Fantastic Four

Iron Man

The Camelot Papers

Tigerheart: A Tale of the Anyplace

Knight Life

One Knight Only

Fall of Knight

Book 1: Sir Apropos of Nothing

Book 2: The Woad to Wuin

Book 3: Tong Lashing

Graphic Novel: Gypsies, Vamps and Thieves

Book 4: Pyramid Schemes (forthcoming)

Book 1: Darkness of the Light

Book 2: Heights of the Depths

Blind Man’s Bluff (Star Trek: New Frontier)

Year of the Black Rainbow (with Claudio Sanchez)

Fable: The Balverine Order

The Fallen Angel

Battleship is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved.

BATTLESHIP motion picture copyright © 2012 by Universal Pictures,

All rights reserved.

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

BATTLESHIP is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. and is used with permission.

DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

Based on Hasbro’s Battleship ®Board Game

eISBN: 978-0-345-53538-2

Cover design: Susan Schultz

Cover illustration: HASBRO and its logo and BATTLESHIP are trademarks of Hasbro and are used with permission. © 2012 Hasbro. BATTLESHIP motion picture © 2012 Universal Studios.

All Rights Reserved.

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