Guns of Theta

By Steven VS

The Harbingers are hunting Kyle Walker. Chased across the world, Kyle and the team must discover who this new threat is as old enemies and new allies join the fight.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steven VS
• Release date: Jan 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370857746

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

Kyle stood high up on the roof and looked across at what he had to admit was a perfect day. Clear, cloudless with the towering skyscrapers of the financial district and the Singapore Eye, a great wheel turning ponderously before them. Nice, thought Kyle. I could get used to this.

‘Blackout, want to stop admiring the view? You know we are sort of here for a reason.’

Kyle grinned and leapt down, some eight feet. There was a time when he wouldn’t have considered such a fall, but he had been testing the limits of his abilities these past two months. This time he didn’t even break a sweat.

‘Felix, I told you I’m not into the name.’ A transmitter in his ear allowed him to communicate with the person providing him field intelligence on this operation - though the person in question was probably covered in chips. Felix was undoubtedly the best, but he was also a stress eater.

‘No names!’ exclaimed Felix. ‘If we’re really going to be a vigilante group - you know, dealing out Justice, and that’s Justice with a capital J - then we need cool names!’

Kyle glanced across the busy street and saw the woman they were looking for. She was innocuous enough - Singaporean and dressed in a pantsuit, her hair neatly back in bun. There was nothing to distinguish her from the countless others going about their business and Kyle felt sure this was intentional.

‘That’s fine,’ came a third voice on the communicator, this one female. ‘But Blackout? Sounds like a Transformer, or some kind of C-list comic book villain.’ Kyle grinned again in spite of himself. Beth had some kind of doctorate when it came to messing with Felix.

‘You know… because Kyle is like super strong? So he punches… you know what, let’s discuss this later?’

‘Sounds like a plan,’ he muttered and followed the woman.

Kyle Walker didn’t particularly stand out. He was fifteen years old with a thick fringe that probably needed a cut. In his sweater, jeans, and a baseball cap a little low across his eyes, there was little to suspect Kyle was anything but an ordinary teenager.

‘Little did they know that Kyle was a super soldier, with the Infinity Formula running through his veins. Stronger, faster and indeed more handsome than…’

‘Felix, what are you doing?’ Beth cut in.

‘Oh, you know,’ said Felix in an off-handed way. ‘Working on my memoirs.’

There was a buzz of static, followed by a long and labored groan.

The woman made no effort to conceal herself, and walked with what seemed a clear purpose. This made sense, after all, to act shadily here would probably have drawn more attention to her than anything else. She blended in well with the crowd and Kyle thought he might have lost her a time or two, but he fought to keep pace through the thick crowd, the blazing sun causing him to sweat. He wiped his brow and watched as the woman headed off the main street.

‘She’s headed south,’ said Kyle. ‘I’ve got a line on her. She’s alone…might be our best chance to intercept.’

‘No,’ said Beth. ‘She’s headed somewhere. Let’s find out where.’

Kyle glanced up. Somewhere along the rooftops Beth was keeping a bird’s eye view of everything along with a customized sniper rifle. Designated RK5, the rifle used cutting edge technology to super change a cell to fire a burst of electrostatic shock across incredible distances. Benefit of having access to the Benefactor’s armory, I guess, thought Kyle.

He kept more of a distance now. With the crowd thinning, it would be much more difficult for him to remain concealed. If he lost her, he would have to rely on his team to track her again. There was a satellite overhead that allowed Felix to monitor everything on the ground and Beth was there as well.

He needn’t have worried, however, as he soon caught sight of the woman. They had left the more metropolitan part of the city behind and Kyle was met with a dock. Or at least what might have passed for a dock a century or two ago. The dock was made of wood, but parts were so rotten that they had collapsed altogether. The few boats left were held by rusted linked as though they had remained in the same spot for years. They floated, gently bobbing in a listless manner, and Kyle watched as the woman headed into the one furthest down. This one, at least, looked slightly newer, though the paint was still chipped. Chinese characters had been written across the side of the boat, the words a blood red.

‘That’s it,’ said Felix. ‘That’s what we’re looking for.’

‘Okay, I’m moving in,’ said Beth. ‘Kyle, head down, I’ll back you up. This rifle can’t penetrate glass, so it’s no good up here.’

Clearly, they’d see him coming if he simply walked up to the boat, so instead Kyle swung down below the upper layer of the docks and walked close to the churning green sea below. Half rotten struts provided a way across, but they were slick and Kyle made slow progress so as not to fall into dark waters. Hopping from one to the other, he found himself adjacent to the boat and leapt across, trusting his own strength. There was little to grip to, but Kyle clung onto the jutted window and pulled himself up. Heaving, Kyle came to the stern of the ship, coming face-to-face with a very surprised looking man. He readied himself to fall back as the man brought up his pistol but in millisecond of luminescence the man was paralyzed before collapsing to the ground.

Glancing up, he gave a thumbs up vaguely to the air.

‘You know, you really can’t teach this stuff,’ said Beth.

‘Clearly you can’t teach humility either,’ added Felix.

Kyle listened for more guards, staying vigilant before hoisting himself up and over onto the deck, pulling out his own weapon - a small, snub-nosed pistol that used the same technology as Beth’s rifle to incapacitate an enemy. It had the distinct downside of only holding three shots and was only effective at very short ranges. Kyle still had nightmares of the two men he had been forced to kill, and had sworn never to do so again.

He could already hear muffled voices coming from the boat’s interior. Keeping low and out of their line of sight, Kyle shimmied across until he was below an open window. The voices were much clearer now, but Kyle didn’t dare look through the window, for risk of being spotted.

‘The Broker is displeased.’ That was the voice of the woman, her accent difficult to pinpoint, though there was a definitely an American hint to it.

‘We don’t work for free,’ said a man’s voice this time, gruff and short. ‘If he wants the intelligence reports that we’re risking our lives for out here, then he’ll pay us. What does he think this is? Charity?’

‘The terms of our agreement were very clear,’ said the woman calmly, ‘and might I say very, very reasonable, but only when the work is complete.’

‘We’ve not seen a goddamn dollar!’ said another man’s voice, this one more volatile than the last. ‘How do we know we’re even dealing with the Broker? We’ve never seen him, no one has!’

‘Calm down,’ said the first man’s voice. ‘Let’s all relax. Look, we just need a sign of a good will. This job… it’s not going as smoothly as we’d hoped. We need more time. If we could just get a little more…’

‘That’s not how the Broker operates,’ said the woman firmly. ‘No one forced you take on this job. You did so of your own volition, saying you were the very best, that you wanted to be a part of his organization. The Broker has been displeased with your work thus far, and if it’s reported to him that you have still not been able to complete your operation after several months…’

‘You’ve spoken to him?’ There was what seemed an air of reverence. The Broker is the real deal, thought Kyle. If there was anyone in the world who was going to give them information on the Harbingers, then it was going to be him.

‘He will be in Singapore tonight to attend a fundraiser for the refugee crisis. If you’d like to speak to him yourself, perhaps ask for more money…’

‘No! We’ll complete our work. It’s… it’s almost finished. Just need…’

‘A little more time, yes.’

There was a buzz in Kyle’s ear. ‘Okay, we got what we came for. Felix, you were right, the Broker is going to be in Singapore.’

‘Well, let’s pay him a visit.’ Felix cackled, or at least attempted to before heading into a coughing fit. ‘Sorry, asthma.’

*

An hour later, the three of them were back in the hotel suite where they had been staying the last two days. Kyle was sharing a room with Felix, whilst Beth had her own room further down the hall. Kyle had come back energized and feeling ready for anything. If he was up, if he had a goal, then everything else was pushed from his mind.

He slumped down on the bed and checked his phone. There were no new messages.

Felix glanced up. He had lost a little weight in the past two months, or at least that was what he was constantly telling people. He was dark-skinned with the beginnings of an afro and thick spectacles. Felix put his laptop aside and looked at Kyle with concerned features. ‘No word from Lily?’

‘A big fat nope.’

‘I guess she’s just busy, you know, with Velen and…whatever it is they’re doing.’ Lily was Kyle’s foster sister and best friend. Or at least she used to be. Two months previously, Lily had been offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go and work with Professor Velen, one of the world’s most renowned scientists. In the beginning, Lily had called him every night, always excited, the calls lasting hours. Soon, though, the nightly calls became weekly… and now apparently, nothing. After a card on his birthday a month ago, there had been nothing but silence on Lily’s end.

Kyle again told himself that Lily was busy. It wasn’t like Kyle wasn’t - it wasn’t as though he were chasing down criminals and terrorists around the globe to get his mind off things. Yeah, he thought. Best not to think too much about that…

There was a knock on the door and, moments later, Beth appeared. She looked as beautiful as always with her soft features and dark hair tied neatly back. There had been some flirting at the beginning, but it had become abundantly clear that neither of them had any true feelings for the other in the intervening months. For Kyle, who had had enough on his mind as it was, this was fine. Besides, he still received the occasional emoji or selfie from Thea, his one-week summer fling and to date the only girl he had ever kissed. That was about all the romance he could handle right now.

‘Okay,’ she said, ‘what do we know?’

Felix tapped rapidly at his laptop before positioning it somewhat precariously at the edge of his bed. Setting it down just right, Felix tapped a few last keys before a blast of light erupted from the end of the laptop projecting a series of high definition images on the wall of the hotel room. Kyle sat up a little, putting his phone aside.

‘Here it is,’ said Felix. ‘All we know about the bad guys. All we know about the Harbingers.’

Harbingers. It was a name that now haunted him. ‘They came after me,’ said Kyle. ‘They have numbers and they sure as hell have the resources to back them up, too.’

Beth nodded. ‘They knew where Kyle was, and, more importantly, they knew what he was.’

Kyle had never learned exactly how he came to be, and truthfully it wasn’t something he wanted to know. What he did know was that the Infinity Formula, a form of advanced nano-technology, strengthened each of his cells, causing him to be strong and fast, with reaction times far greater than an ordinary person.

‘There’s no one in the world like Kyle Walker.’

‘So that’s where we are,’ said Felix. ‘The Harbingers want Kyle to put him on a lab table, slice him up, find out what makes him work…’

‘So we need more info on them.’ Kyle stared up at the images on the wall. It made for a pretty light show, but in truth they knew very little about the enemy they faced. All they knew was that the Harbingers had numbers and were well organized.

Kyle had only just managed to fight them off and evade capture and that had been with a lot of help. Beth had been training with Kyle almost every day these past two months, and Kyle had never felt stronger, faster, or more powerful. Whoever the Harbingers were, Kyle didn’t think they were the sort of people who would try once and then just give up.

‘Even the Benefactor didn’t know much about them,’ said Felix. ‘The only thing he could tell me for sure is that the Broker was working with the Harbingers. If we want information, he’s the person we’re going to have to go through.’

‘Here we are,’ said Kyle. ‘Well, I’m not waiting to give them another chance. Let’s find the Broker, get him to talk, and take down the Harbingers.’

‘Like old times,’ said Beth with a smile. Kyle nodded and sat back down. He checked his phone. Still no messages. He wondered if he should try to contact Lily again, but he put the thought from his mind. She’s busy, I get it. Come on Walker…

Besides, there were bad guys to take down and if there was one thing that could push everything from Kyle Walker’s mind, it was that.

CHAPTER TWO

Kyle stood outside in his tuxedo, nursing a lemonade and staring at the night skyline of Singapore. It was truly amazing how alive the city became at night, with a thousand pinprick lights illuminating through the gloom.

He took a deep breath and headed inside. He had been to some impressive parties, but this seemed the most luxurious. There were champagne fountains, shrimp cocktail and several things he could hardly pronounce, all of which seemed to come with a crazy price tag that Felix was having a lot of fun whispering in his ear.

His cover this time was a little more believable than the last time he’d infiltrated a party - the son of a wealthy investor brought along begrudgingly by his father. If anyone checked his identification, they would see that he was indeed the son of venture capitalist Elijah Sutton. And should they look even closer, they would also find out his age, GCSEs, and even his position on the school basketball team.

‘The Broker is here, guys,’ said Felix. ‘You’re looking for a middle-aged, blond, Caucasian man, medium build. Err… looks rich.’

Beth sidled beside Kyle, looking effortless and glamorous, and far older than sixteen. ‘So we’re looking for someone…who looks exactly like every single person here?’

Felix cursed, apparently in Japanese, before continuing. ‘Okay fine. You want more intel than that? Look to the entrance. The Broker is about to make his appearance.’

In all fairness to Felix, this is exactly what happened. A blond man appeared, more diminutive than his title would have suggested. He gave a smile, taking the champagne offered to him before heading into the crowd.

‘Let’s split up,’ said Beth. She drained the last of her champagne and turned to Kyle. ‘You keep him occupied - use that famous Walker charm - and I’ll head up to his hotel room. Talk about… something cool. Like his thoughts on the new Star Wars. Sound good? Excellent.’ She strode off with the sort of heady purpose Kyle had come to expect from her.

‘I hate it when she does that,’ muttered Felix.

Walker charm?

Kyle found the Broker with a small group, all of whom were laughing at something no doubt extremely funny he had just said.

‘And I said to Sarah, that’s why crocodiles don’t fly!’ The group continued to cackle in what felt a sycophantic manner, but the Broker seemed to enjoy this, before spotting Kyle. ‘And you must be our youngest donor!’ There was another round of laughs and knee slaps (‘Stop it Jake, you slay me, SLAY ME!!’).

Kyle smiled shyly. ‘I mean, if it brings a smile to the face of just a single child then it’s, you know, all worth it.’

There was a measured silence, and as was always the case when Kyle talked complete nonsense, he felt it could go one of two ways. Thankfully, the Broker was the first to respond with, ‘How insightful for one so young,’ and the rest began to agree profusely.

‘Got to think about the kids,’ said Kyle, blandly and without any idea what he was talking about.

‘Friends, perhaps you’d forgive me. I’d like to speak to our young investor.’ The Broker gestured for Kyle to follow. ‘Walk with me…’

‘Elijah.’

‘Yes, walk with me Elijah.’

‘Okay, I’ve reached his hotel room,’ said Beth in his ear. ‘Keep him busy. I only had to take down three guards so… well, keep the rest of them off me.’

‘So what brings Kyle Walker to Singapore?’ asked the Broker immediately. Kyle felt as though he’d been sucker punched. ‘Keep smiling, Kyle. This is an important event.’ The Broker gave a wave at some passersby.

‘My name’s Elijah,’ he said pointlessly, but he thought why the