Alterien Once Was Lost

By Adam R. Brown

Alterien – Once Was Lost – The first chapter in a series featuring an extraordinary man who initially struggles with his lost humanity and later struggles when his humanity gradually comes back.
An extraordinary young man named John Lost is the International Security Agency's best agent. In addition to his unusual ability to predict certain crimes, he is capable of taking on the occasional super human threat. Lost soon learns a great deal about himself, including the discovery that he is not an enhanced human, but something else entirely; an Alterien.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adam R. Brown
• Release date: Feb 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781465764805

Adam R. Brown

I am a writer who has enjoyed writing various types of stories for many years, ever since I was a child. From an early age, I found an interest in high fantasy and science fiction, and those are the two genres I write in now. My ultimate goal is to become a successful author among the likes of J.K.Rowling and Stephen King. That's a big dream, I know, but whether it comes true or not, I will continue to write and do my best to never give up on my dream.

Book preview

Alterien

Book 1

Once Was Lost

Author: Adam R. Brown

Cover Artist: John Jackson

Editor: Jeanetta Hill-Brown

Copyright: 2012 Adam R. Brown All Rights Reserved

Published by Adam Musings Publishing at Smashwords

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons,

living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

With the exception of brief text quoted and properly cited, no part of this book may be copied or reproduced by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the express permission of the author in accordance with U.S. federal copyright law.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Hot Pursuit

Chapter 2: Thunder Down Under

Chapter 3: Now Am Found

Chapter 4: You Are Not the Only One

Acknowledgments

About This Author

Bibliography

Chapter 1: Hot Pursuit

It is the year 2059. Two international government agents, part of the UN’s ISA (International Security Agency), were en route to an isolated location in the Namib Desert in their small, standard assigned aircraft, a well-designed plane capable of vertical take-off called the Kite. One of them was a dedicated and gifted field operative, Abigail Summers. The other was a man unique in many ways. His name was John Lost.

John had earned his name after being discovered by a group of US Marines in a state park. He was lost and had no memory of who he was or where he came from. Back then he exhibited superhuman abilities that prompted the Marines to take him to their base. The scientists who studied him knew that superhumans were not born, they were made. However, despite exhaustive scans and tests, John showed no apparent evidence of modification in spite his unusual attributes. He would later be placed within a unit of the augmented human Special Forces group called S.A.B.E.R. (Strategic Adaptive Ballistics Engagement and Reconnaissance). That was seven years ago. Today, he was a member of the ISA and was again poised to make a difference with abilities that remained unexplained.

John, do you sense anything out here? said Abigail.

Yes, our quarry is very close, John replied.

Good, that means we don’t have to run so far for this one, which is good considering where we’re landing. I just wish we could have located him with the Kite’s infrared. Of course, with all the heat out here, the infrared’s pretty much useless.

Perhaps I could modify them after we apprehend the suspect, he said with a clear Spanish accent, albeit with a detached tone of voice.

Just be sure to run it by Hollander first. He wasn’t all that thrilled with your last modifications.

They did make our equipment more effective.

Sure, but you know how he is about protocol.

Indeed.

I see a good spot to set down. I’m taking us in, said Abigail.

Abigail continued to pilot the Kite, as she controlled the vehicle’s steady descent into the desert. Once on the ground, Abigail and John unbuckled their seat belts, as the side hatch opened. The two agents got up from their seats and ran out of the plane. Abigail immediately drew her weapon. John, however, did not. He simply walked slowly alongside his partner, as they made their way through the dunes of the desert. Unlike even most enhanced people, John had an advanced brain with an extraordinarily high sense of awareness. He had come to know it as hypercognition. That was the name the ISA scientists had given for his sixth sense. In essence, he could be so aware of others and his environment, he could anticipate attacks from any direction seconds before it occurred. Needless to say, this particular attribute came in handy.

How close would you say he is now? Abigail asked.

He’s going to attack us, John replied matter-of-factly.

He is? When?

Now.

Suddenly, the man they’d been chasing leapt high into the air from behind one of the dunes, firing his laser rifle. Before Abigail could get a shot off, John had moved in front of her. The assailant’s bolts of laser fire hit John’s chest and raised hand, causing the agent to feel invigorated, and something else happened. In that brief moment, John felt a rising heat in his eyes and face. The sensation wasn’t unpleasant, but everything suddenly appeared transparent.

The other laser bolts hit the sand around them like small meteors, turning the area into a fireworks display of sand. The suspect immediately rolled into a charge the moment he landed. He continued to fire, as he ran toward the agents. Out of the corner of his eye, John caught sight of Abigail leaping from behind him, firing off a laser bolt that hit the gunman’s shoulder. John continued to maintain the invisible shield that successfully withstood the attack. He then closed his hand into a fist, which coincided with the suspect’s gun suddenly overloading. The weapon got brighter and hotter, causing the man to throw the rifle several feet into the air. The gun exploded in a flash.

John’s attention was briefly drawn by Abigail shouting, It’s over. Get on your knees and put your hands on your head, as she pointed her still functioning weapon toward the suspect.

Both Abigail and the suspect they’d been chasing had become transparent, allowing him to see their internal organs. John had gained the ability to see the depth in all matter, an ability he called 3D vision. With this uncanny sight, he noticed the man’s heart wasn’t beating as quickly as it should have been, given the amount of movement he made.

This man has clearly been enhanced, he thought, as the suspect smiled at Abigail and took off so fast; the sand jumped from where he once stood.

The steadfast agent looked to see the man had already gotten at least 200 yards away.

"We’ve got a runner, John, and it looks like he’s almost as