Resotek Elite: Life Force

By Brett P. S.

Baylee Ryder wept beneath a crumbling street overpass, her back to the glorious city that eviscerated her brother, his blood a stain on Fortune’s ego. The chill of a cold, unfeeling metropolis consumed her and wrapped her heart in disdain and putrid hate. She would make them pay. Oh yes, she would drag Chicago to its knees. Donning her new alter ego, Life Force, Baylee Ryder awakened to the pinnacle of her resonance with a city to bring down and a lust for vengeance no cruel justice could sate. Gavin Price, discharged from the Prometheus Program, filled his time working for the local police force and mapping out his newfound resonance, but time runs short and Life Force waits for no one. Things are about to go south in the windy city and not even Eternia, its sworn protector, can avert this crisis on her own.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brett P. S.
• Release date: Mar 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463417027

Brett P. S.

Brett Sawyer (1986), born in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, is an indie author who writes short stories & novellas, from science fiction to heroes. He graduated from Eastern Illinois University in 2015 with a Bachelor’s in education and currently teaches game design at Lake Land College.Short Change arrived at retailers in November of 2014, the start of a hero series where ordinary people gained powers over oddly specific domains, following the story of a shorter than average hero who can telekinetically manipulate small units of currency.Short Change is free on “smashwords.com/profile/view/BrettPS” and Barnes & Noble along with other samples and short fiction.Brett’s popular releases in science fiction include “Dark Station” and “Tales from the Colony: An Interstellar Saga.” Dark Station is a deep space thriller set aboard an abandoned orbital science station where Ben Gebbley and his crew secretly investigate the disappearance of the original staff before others come to claim the lost assets.

Book preview

Table of Contents

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

EPILOGUE

Prologue

Overgrowth Reborn

Overpass, Outside Chicago

Baylee Ryder wept. Soft tears rolled down her cheek as she lay beneath an overpass. The blackened shadow of an unfeeling city consumed her, wrapped her heart. Night blanketed the land around her. Her face and body met concrete. Her tattered dress and everything that Jack had provided … withering away. His dreams, his ambitions, it all relied on living, and she cursed herself for not being wiser and stronger.

She should have seen it coming, warned him in time. Baylee tightened her fist and sighed. He wouldn’t have listened anyway. He tried to hide it, but he was just like Pa, a good man in principle, a monster in the flesh. But he was her brother. No matter what he’d done, it wasn’t his fault. He just didn’t know any better. He just … footsteps.

A breeze blew through her hair, ruffling the blades of grass that had popped through the concrete to fit inside her hand. She let go and climbed to her feet as a tall, well-postured figure sauntered into the shade of the overpass. Cars and trucks barreled above them as the man approached. He switched on a flashlight that erupted in her eyes. It hurt to look directly at him, so much that she raised her hands to block it out, but he continued his approach.

Officer Deacon of the RTF, he said. We’ve received reports of someone squatting …

Turn it off!

He paused. Excuse me, ma’am?

Balyee grunted. The light. Turn it off!

The officer obliged with hesitation. After a moment, he switched off the glaring beam and snapped it to his belt. Then, as if to add to the insult, he reached for his firearm. Baylee caught a glimpse of the Model 9 he held in his hand. Weaponry armed with a Model 9 Resotek Core was easy enough to spot. Jack taught her how. The bulge was at the rear of the weapon, near the part of the chamber where the ignition occurred.

She sized up the officer, noticed the way he trembled as he looked at her. He gripped his gun with both hands but kept the barrel pointed low to the ground. He didn’t point it directly at her, but he didn’t have to. She was a threat, and his heart was pumping faster than normal. She paused at the thought. How did she know that?

Baylee peered through the layers of fascia and muscle. Bone and sinew wrapped by veins, blood, and cellular structures. Something was happening to her. Something was changing inside, and she didn’t know whether to feel joy or terror. Baylee scoffed and shook off her fear. This breed of person took Jack’s life. Cowards, all