Authors: Tom Pollack
Tags: #covenant, #novel, #christian, #biblical, #egypt, #archeology, #Adventure, #ark
Wayward Son
WAYWARD
SON
by TOM POLLACK
with JIM ALVES and JOHN LOFTUS
Cascada Productions
READERPEDIA®
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Wayward Son
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Motion picture credit for Tom Pollack:
Walt Disney Pictures
“Morning Light”
A 2008 film based on an
original idea by Thomas J. Pollack
Cascada Productions
2901 West Coast Highway, Suite 200
Newport Beach, CA 92663
Copyright © 2011 by Cascada Productions
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Cascada Productions.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors’ rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-1-4507-6958-7
Book Cover Design by Tim Green of Faceout Studios
Illustrations by Connie Gabbert of The Spare Button
Print interior design by Robin Black of Blackbird Creative
E-book conversion by Green E-Books
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business organizations, places, events, and incidents are the product of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead or actual events is entirely coincidental.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
For my loving father,
Thomas C. Pollack,
who passed away in 2010
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We extend our recognition and sincere thanks to the dear people in our loyal “reader posse,” numbering nearly one hundred, who devoured the various versions of the manuscript and offered their thoughtful suggestions for creating a better novel. Their names are listed below. Jim Madden—you win the patience award for the most reads!
Also, we wish to thank Don Jacobson and Jason Myhre of D. C. Jacobson & Associates for their encouragement and expert guidance as we took the decision to launch Cascada Productions and publish this novel ourselves.
We also owe a huge debt of gratitude to our talented editors, David Jacobsen and Steffany Woolsey.
And of course, we honor our lovely wives, Jennifer Pollack, Jackie Alves, and Lori Loftus for their encouragement and support. We simply don’t know how you put up with the three of us as we forsook your company for one another’s during this endeavor. We promise you some wonderful vacations before we try anything like this again!
Tom, in particular, has some additional thanks to express.
Muchas gracias
to H. M. Juan Carlos, the King of Spain, for inviting me to Europe in 2004, where we collaborated in helping to establish a professional grand prix sailboat racing circuit called the Audi Medcup. This venture allowed me to spend free time near ancient ruins in Rome, Herculaneum, Athens, and other exotic locations, where the core ideas for this novel germinated and were then researched.
Thank you, Betty Pollack, my amazing and loving mother, for encouraging me to travel the world in search of adventure. I found it!
To my buddy Jim Demetraides, with whom I spent enormous amounts of “spare” time at Loyola Marymount engaging in strategy/role-playing games and creating fascinating characters.
My eternal love and respect for Jennifer and our fabulous children, Lance and Fallon, for patiently listening to me think out loud about the novel in the car, at home, on vacation, etc., etc.
And finally, my dear friend Roy Disney, a terrific, down-to-earth guy who loved his
New York Times
crossword puzzles and taught me more than a few lessons about storytelling later in life. I miss you.
Many thanks to the reader posse: Adam Alves, Michael Alves, Michael Badran, Michael Baynes, Edward Bonlarron, Jamie Bott, Kari Bretschger, Jim Burke, Brenda Clauss, Peter Clayton, James Cocara, Lynn Coleman, Carol Dalton, Cornell Dascalu, Margaret Dascalu, Kim Delaney, Jim Demetriades, Nancy Demetriades, Janet Demetriou, Pete Demetriou, Linda Dillon, Erin Doe, Warren Duffy, Mark Eisele, Catherine Faddis, Debbie Farquhar, William Fecia, Erich Friedman, Kari Garrett, Tom Garrett, Ken Giacommuzzi, Danni Good, Eric Grasmeyer, Jim Grasmeyer, John Grasmeyer, Ken Grasmeyer, Jenny Green, Steven Hornyak, Richard Jacobsen, Andrew Johnson, Terry Kerr, Paul Kim, Marjorie Koss, Becky LaForge, Pastor Pete Lasutschinkow, Peggy Lobdell, Jason Loftus, Lori Loftus, Heather Madden, Jim Madden, Patsy Marshall, Albert Mason, Fran Messenger, Helene Mochedlover, Gina Moish, Betty Mulford, Dave Mulford, George Munz, Erin Nagle, Rob Nagle, Anne Najar, Richard Najar, Mike Nash, Kristin Orloff, Ross Pake, Tony Petruzzi, Betty Pollack, Dave Pollack, Debra Pollack, Fallon Pollack, Kate Pollack, Lance Pollack, Lisa Pollack, Sam Pollack, Steve Pollack, Thomas C. Pollack, Fr. Michael Pontarelli, Jan Potter, Keri Jo Raz, Kent Riley, Marisa Rudder, Ann Scanzaroli, James Scanzaroli, Peter Smrechek, Val Smrechek, Kendall Souza, Laura Steil, Tim Timmons, Sr., Judith Toor, Dr. Jean Traux, Ed Underwood, Susan Valera, Jerry Walker, Alex Wasilewski, Jim West, and Clarence Yoshikane.
“Choose this day whom you will
serve…”
-
Joshua 24:15, NLT
PROLOGUE
North Shore, Oahu, Hawaii
AMANDA KNEW THIS WAS the moment of decision.
Hurtling down the steep curl of the biggest wave yet, she trailed her hand along its glassy face to slow her descent and stay slotted inside the iridescent green tube. She’d never been in the barrel this long before, and her instincts were to kick out, but the rush was incredible. Maybe just a little longer…
This morning’s waves at the Banzai Pipeline were beyond belief. Gorgeously shaped double overheads broke some two hundred yards farther out than normal. She’d already ridden several monsters that barreled and re-formed two or three times.
Now, as she savored the precarious balance between gravity and speed, Amanda heard the faint, rhythmic sound of gongs pealing from the shore.
“Bells?” she thought. “That old church is miles from here.”
The distraction proved costly.
Her board slid upward, and the wave pitched her over the falls, slamming down on her with a thunderous roar and plunging her under the water. Amanda was caught in a powerful washing-machine surge that left her with no sense of up or down.
She knew from experience to stay calm and wait it out, but the undercurrent was relentless, seemingly eternal. Even worse, she felt a wrenching tug on her ankle as her tether snagged in the coral beneath. Amanda began to struggle, but the Pacific was too powerful an adversary.