SVS Agent Round 16: PANGEA, YA Futuristic Thriller

Title: PANGEA

Genre: YA Futuristic Thriller

Word Count: 81,000

Is Your Main Character hot or cold: 

Annelize would like to be cold. Well, cooler. Her parents would have fewer gray hairs if she were. She wants to model their glacial exteriors, never uttering a wrong word, but Annelize doesn’t have their natures or military training. It’s a miracle she hasn’t been detained at the border due to a poorly concealed scoff. Annelize knows she needs to let some things go, but she’s always found holding back more exhausting than diving in. A trait that causes significant problems at border crossings.

Query:

Dear Agents of Sun versus Snow:

Annelize Barbosa is a national security threat from birth.

The remaining thirteen Nations agree on one principle: division brings peace. Every person has one Nation, one language, one loyalty. There’s no contact between Nations with the exception of diplomatic officers, but even the most rigorously trained officers can lapse. Annelize is one of those lapses, a Blend. Her dad’s Brazilian. Her mom’s American. For decades, international law allowed Blends eighteen years to choose a Nation. Annelize is seventeen when the law changes without warning, and she’s tossed in an airport cell.

An unexpected rescue lands Annelize aboard the Pangea, a floating refuge for Blends of all ages and Nations. Mara, the frigid European-Arabian Blend in charge of Pangea, refuses to risk the ship in order to help Annelize get home until a disastrous rescue in Morocco reveals Annelize’s gifted seafaring to the crew of Pangea. In need of Annelize’s skills, Mara offers to smuggle Annelize back to one parent in exchange for her help evacuating Blends to Pangea.

Jumping at any chance to leave the now-hunted stealth ship with forty refugee kids planning suicidal rescue missions from Mumbai to Tokyo seems by far the sanest choice. But with Blends being imprisoned around the world and the crew of Pangea desperate to discover why, Annelize is torn between reuniting with the family that raised her and fighting for the survival of a family that needs her.

First 250 words:

Annelize rinsed salt, sand, and various carcinogens off her board. A Trade Transport had chugged through the bay at dawn, and the red flags were up warning people away from the chemicals in its wake. Annelize had gone out anyway. Whitecaps beckoned from across the street, and the high she was on justified an indifference to future cancer risks.

The indifference was temporary.

The care with which Annelize cleaned, dried, and stored her board betrayed her concern with the future. The ritual was a meticulous defense against the inevitable wear and tear of time, and Annelize was a tenacious opponent. She downed half a bottle of fresh coconut water preparing to attack the buildup of sand and wax on her board.

“Annelize!” Her dad called from the living room. “Sua mãe está na telé. Precisa falar com ela.”

Why was her mom calling? Annelize knew her mom missed her, but the obsessive checking in was moving from endearing to annoying. 

“Estou um pouco ocupada nesse momento,” Annelize replied. Obviously she was busy. Annelize was still sealed into her wetsuit. She could call her mom back when she wasn’t leaving puddles with every step.

“Annelize! Vem falar com sua mãe agora!”

The high vanished. Her dad had ordered her to take the call using his commander’s voice. It got immediate compliance from both distracted sailors and daughters, which was why he only used it on Annelize when she was doing something dangerous or wrong.

Annelize tugged at her suit suddenly cold and constricting.