Note to Reader

      The Seven Wonders series is a tale of adventure, sacrifice, and friendship. Of awesome mysteries locked away for centuries. Of prehistoric beasts and burping barefoot giants. Of an ordinary thirteen-year-old kid named Jack McKinley, captured and taken to a hidden place dedicated to the study of … him. You see, Jack is one of only four people who possess unearthly powers—powers that will kill them. To stay alive, these four friends must embark on a dangerous quest for the secrets of a lost civilization. The secrets they find may save them, but at a cost—the destruction of the world.

      So what are these journals?

      Well, first of all, the Seven Wonders series takes place now, with kids who might be your best friends. But recently, while working on the series, I came across a trove of documents that made my blood race. What do they have to do with this epic? An insane amount. After a high-level meeting in midtown Manhattan, and at some risk of personal danger, I have arranged for them to finally be released as soon as each is translated and ready.

      The events in these journals occur centuries before the first book in the series, The Colossus Rises. The tales themselves are amazing. But more importantly, those who read them will have the inside track on everyone else. You’ll learn some deep secrets—secrets some people might not want you to know.

      A discovery like this is too big to hold back.

      The fate of the world is in the balance.

      

      

      I DO NOT hear them, but I know they are near.

      The creatures. The men. They hunt me through the rocks and jungle trees.

      I must move, but I cannot. I fear my ankle is broken. If I stay, they will flush me out of this hiding place. When they are through with Father, they will come for me.

      I pray they spare him. It is I whom they seek.

      Yesterday I was the proud son of a renowned archaeologist, a man of science. We were explorers in a strange land. We would make incredible discoveries.

      Today I know the truth.

      Father brought me here to find a cure for my sickness. To heal my weakened body. To fix what science cannot understand.

      But today I learned that my blood has sealed my fate.

      If the prophecy is true, I will die before reaching my fourteenth birthday.

      If the prophecy is true, I will cause the destruction of the world.

      The island drew us here. It will draw others. Like Father. People who seek the truth. It must not end like this. So I leave this account for those who follow. And I pray, more than anything, that I have time to finish.

      Our ship was called Enigma. She sailed ten days ago, September 14, into a red, swollen sun setting over Cardiff. But I lay in a cabin belowdecks, racked with head pain.

      “Are you all right?” Father asked, peeking over for the dozenth time.

      For the dozenth time I lied. “Yes.”

      “Then come abovedecks. The air will be good for you.”

      I followed him out of the cabin and up the ladder. Above and around us, the crew set the rigging, hauled in supplies, checked lists. English, French, Greek—their shouts kept my mind off the pain. Silently, I translated. What I didn’t know, I learned from context. I had never heard the Malay tongue, but the words floated through the air in rapid cadences. They were spoken by a powerful but diminutive deckhand named Musa.

      My love of languages

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