The Prometheus Trap (The New Prometheus Book 3)

by Andrew Dobell

  Gibson spotted them come in and walked over, followed by Veronica, Cole, and Dion. Kalypso was also in here directing some of the officers around.

  ‘Thank goodness for that; you’re all right,’ Gibson said.

  ‘I’m okay, yes, thanks,’ she said.

  ‘And Hellion? Did you get her?’ he asked.

  ‘She got away. I knocked her from the flyer, and by the time I got to where she’d landed, she was gone, unfortunately.’

  ‘Damn shame. But, at least you’re okay,’ Gibson said.

  ‘Hey, Frankie,’ Dion said as he stepped up to her. ‘Thanks again for getting me out.’

  ‘Not a problem,’ she said. ‘You must have found Jude, then?’

  ‘Yeah, he got me away. We were picked up by the police a short time later. But what about you? You’re the one that’s been fighting them; are you okay?’

  ‘Don’t worry about me, Dion; I can take quite a bit of punishment these days. Where’s Jude, by the way?’

  Dion pressed his lips together, not looking happy with the answer he was about to give. ‘He’s over there, with the Jackers.’

  ‘Under arrest with the rest of them?’

  Dion nodded. ‘I tried to tell them he was okay, but they weren’t having it.’

  ‘They’re just doing their job, Dion,’ she said. ‘But leave it with me, let’s see what we can do,’ she said, before turning to William. ‘Let me deal with the Jackers, okay?’

  ‘Sure, I’ll let the officer in charge know to follow your lead,’ William said.

  Frankie thanked him with a smile and walked over to towards the Jackers.

  ‘Frankie,’ Kalypso said in greeting as Frankie walked past her.

  ‘Kalypso. Everything all right?’

  ‘Fine now we know what happened to you guys. We were in the dark for a while there,’ she said. ‘Good to know you’re all alive and well, though.’

  ‘Are these all the Jacker gang members in the building?’ Frankie asked.

  ‘As far as we can tell. We found the massacre in the basement garage. We estimate that over half of them were killed in that attack. There might be a few hidden elsewhere in the building or outside of it, but everyone we could find is here,’ Kalypso said.

  ‘Good, I’m just going to have a quick word with them,’ she said as a police officer walked over to them.

  ‘You’re Frankie, right?’ the man said.

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘Director Forrester has informed me that you have authority as regards the Jackers here.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she said with a smile.

  ‘I have to say, this is highly irregular. These people should be standing trial,’ he said. ‘But I have both the PM and the Chief of Police overruling me on this, so…’

  Frankie smiled, enjoying seeing this officer squirm and probably feeling somewhat redundant. ‘Thank you, sir, I’ll just need a moment with them,’ she said.

  ‘Of course,’ the officer said and gestured towards the Jackers.

  Frankie walked over, quickly spotting Spider, Razor, Gus, and Jude with the other surviving gang members, all of whom looked up at Frankie, their expressions grim and slightly suspicious.

  ‘Is this how you repay us?’ Spider asked. ‘By fucking us over?’

  Frankie raised her hand in a calming gesture and waited a moment to be sure they were going to stay quiet. ‘I understand your frustration, but the police were just doing their job and needed everything under control, including you. But I have an offer for you, and the choice is yours,’ she said, pausing.

  ‘An offer we can’t refuse I bet,’ Razor commented.

  ‘Is there any other type where these guys are concerned?’ Spider answered.

  As they heckled her, Frankie opened a link to Jude. ‘Hey, you still want out of the gang?’

  ‘Of course,’ he said.

  ‘Okay, let me see what I can do,’ she answered him, before speaking out loud again. ‘The offer is this: you may go free, no strings attached if you allow Jude to freely leave the gang and come with me. Or, you can be taken into custody and stand trial for whatever offences they can bring to bear on you,’ she said.

  ‘Oh, well, let me think!’ Spider said sarcastically.

  ‘Is that a yes?’ Frankie asked.

  ‘Yes, of course, he can go,’ Spider answered. ‘Shit, girl, what did you think I was gonna say?’ he explained, rolling his eyes before he turned away from her. ‘I take it that’s what you want?’ he said to Jude.

  ‘It is,’ Jude said quietly.

  ‘Then go, dude. I ain’t stopping ya,’ Spider answered him.

  Jude stood up onto his tracks and rolled through the surrounding police towards Frankie with a smile on his face. ‘Thank you,’ he said.

  ‘Anytime,’ she answered, and turned back to the Jackers. ‘Thanks, guys. You’re free to go,’ she said. She watched as they stood while the police backed off. They were looking about suspiciously, but they all soon started to move away. Spider paused and looked back at her for a moment.

  ‘I take it we can’t get our guns back?’ he asked eventually.

  ‘There are limits to what I can do,’ she answered him with a smile, admiring his self-confidence.

  Spider went to walk towards her, only for an officer to step in front of him.

  ‘It’s okay,’ Frankie said to the officer, and he stepped aside with a nod, letting Spider pass and walk up to her.

  He offered her his hand. ‘You’re all right… For a spook,’ he said.

  ‘I’ll take that as a compliment,’ Frankie smiled at him and gave his hand a firm shake.

  ‘Look after yourself. Maybe I’ll see you around someday,’ he said to her.

  Frankie nodded. ‘Count on it,’ she said. ‘And, if you ever need a favour, we kind of owe you.’

  Spider paused and seemed to let that sink in for a moment before looking back up at her. ‘Good to know,’ he answered her, and turned away with a smile.

  Frankie watched him re-join the other members of his gang and walk out of the room. He didn’t look back, and they were soon gone. Frankie turned to face Jude.

  ‘You’re free,’ she said to him.

  A huge grin spread across his face. ‘Thanks to you,’ he said.

  ‘You would have found a way out, one way or another, eventually,’ she said. ‘I’m just happy to find you alive and well. I really thought you had died that day in the camp. I’ve felt bad about not being able to save you for months.’

  ‘Well, I’m happy to prove you wrong,’ he said. ‘Don’t forget, I felt the same. I saw you get shot. I thought you had died that day, too. I’ve been feeling guilty about that day for ages as well. If only I’d known.’

  ‘Hey, we’re both alive, and that’s the main thing,’ Frankie said.

  ‘Yeah, I know,’ he said as he started to move alongside her while she walked through the room. The noise of the motors in his tracks and the sound of them on the concrete floor attracted her attention down to his curious augmentation. She needed to help him with those as soon as possible, she thought, looking back up, not wanting to stare at them. Her eyes came to rest on Doctor Xenox a short distance away, and an idea suddenly passed through her head.

  ‘Hey, Jude, I have a friend of mine that I want to introduce you to. He’s a cyberneticist, and I think he could do wonders for your legs if you’d let him,’ she said while she changed the direction of their walk and made her way through the room.

  ‘A friend of yours?’ he asked.

  ‘That’s right. He’s the one who saved my life and gave me this new body,’ she said.

  ‘Oh, okay, then sure, that sounds great. I can’t tell you how fed up I am with these tracks. They’re always breaking down and just so clumsy,’ he said.

  Frankie led Jude up to Doctor Xenox and gently attracted his attention. ‘Hi, Doc. I have someone I’d like to introduce you to,’ she said with a smile.

  3.20

  Hellion rose from a dark miasma o
f nothingness and indistinct images that flew from her grasp. Fleeting scenes of pain and violence, but also of loss. A digital glitch cut across her vision as the scene before her faded into view. She was on her back, looking up at a pristine white ceiling with glowing white lights, but something was wrong with her eyes as digital glitches kept flickering and cutting through the images, pixelating everything for a second before the picture reset itself.

  The display overlay flashed into life suddenly, with readouts running through her boot up sequence. Flashing red code kept appearing here and there while warning icons flashed up, one after the other, only for her to cancel them.

  She turned off the overlay and closed her eyes. Was she in a hospital? Was she hurt?

  A memory of falling, and then of someone, a woman, kicking her in the chest rose to the surface, and suddenly she remembered what had happened. Frankie Gene and her team of government lap dogs, that’s what had happened.

  Frankie had killed Kat and Spectre, and she had gotten angry and careless in response to Frankie’s actions. She always appreciated every member of her team, even though it did change membership and size from time to time, but Spectre had been with her from the beginning. Spectre especially had been her star pupil, her protégée, the one member of her team she was closest to, but she was more than that too, she was her younger sister. She was close to Kat, too, as she’d been with her for the longest so far outside of her sister, but losing her didn’t cut anywhere near as keenly.

  But now her sister was gone, taken away from her for good. Anger and frustration rose within her, boiled up and out in a scream and roar of anguish as she lay there on the bed before she sank back into silence, tears rolling down her cheeks.

  ‘I understand your frustration,’ said a voice from close by.

  Hellion opened her eyes and looked to her right, to see a woman stood close by, looking down at her where she lay. She was a slim lady, all angular as if she’d been cut from ice, and she looked down at her with cold black cybernetic eyes.

  Hellion knew who she was. She’d met her a few times, most recently when she had been commissioned to take out Frankie. This was Wynter, a Psytech employee and genius cyberneticist who had been enhancing Hellion and her team for over a year now.

  ‘Do you?’ Hellion said, still feeling petulant and angry.

  ‘You failed, and you lost your team. Failure and loss are never easy to deal with, but there are ways to deal with it,’ she said.

  ‘That’s right,’ said another voice to Hellion’s left. She looked over and saw another woman. Without any visible cybernetic augmentations, she had full flowing hair that fell over her shoulders in waves. It was quite the opposite to Wynter's hair, which was pulled back into a severe bun on the back of her head that revealed the black sub-dermal circuitry that was visible just beneath her skin around the edges of her face.

  Hellion knew this second woman, too, in her tailored suit and white blouse. This was Marissa Webb, one of the board members of Psytech. She was a very powerful woman in the corporate world and someone who also held no love for Frankie and her team.

  ‘I can think of a few ways to deal with it,’ Hellion answered them, her thoughts going to very dark places and thinking of all the things she would dearly like to do to Frankie. All the pain she would like to inflict on her in retaliation for what she had done to her and her team.

  ‘Well, I’m sure we can help you with that, but there is the issue of your body,’ Marissa said.

  Hellion stopped thinking about the tortures she would like to inflict on Frankie and looked down at herself. She was in no fit state to do anything right now. In fact, she doubted very much that she would be able to walk out of this room in her current state, let alone go hunting for Frankie.

  ‘That’s right. It, frankly, has seen better days,’ Wynter said.

  ‘You can fix me, though, right?’ Hellion asked.

  ‘Sure, but in return, you do this mission for us: you deal with Frankie and the A.C.T. the way we want you to, understood?’

  ‘I don’t care how I do it, as long as I get to rip that bitch’s lungs out, I couldn’t care less if I need to follow a few rules along the way. Just fix me up.’

  ‘Excellent, I hope this will be the start of a beautiful working relationship,’ Marissa said. ‘She’s all yours,’ she said to Wynter.

  ‘Thank you, Miss Webb. Now, Hellion, how would you feel about an upgrade?’ Wynter said as she leant her hip against Hellion’s bed.

  Hellion looked up at Wynter as a smile grew across her face. ‘An upgrade would be perfect.’

  Author Note

  Thank you for reading this book. I really appreciate you giving up your time and reading my weird and wonderful stories.

  My writing, for me, is all about writing what I love, and Cyberpunk is one of those things.

  The first book in this series was quite a small story of one girls struggle to survive in a harsh world and against the odds. With book 2, we went global, with the stakes much higher and the plot sprawling with a bigger cast of characters and more locations. It was a rip-roaring ride where Frankie got to make a real difference to her world. The actions of that story will have repercussions for many books to come.

  With this one, book 3, I wanted to go smaller. I wanted to go back to the action set piece without the global consequences, and just have the characters go on what would be a normal mission that spirals out of control and they have to fight to survive.

  There are obvious parallels to certain movies in here, and I most certainly took some inspiration from the likes of Dredd and The Raid. Hopefully, I created another fun Cyberpunk story full of action and adventure that, fingers crossed, you like!

  I have planned out the next few books and will be doing book 4 very soon.

  Thanks for joining me on this ride. Feel free to connect with me on Facebook or through my mailing list on my website.

  See you in the next book!

  Andrew

  Website: www.andrewdobellauthor.co.uk

  Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/andrewdobellauthor/

  Would you leave me a Review???

  Thank you for taking the time to read this book. If you enjoyed it, please consider posting a short review on Amazon. Word of mouth is an author’s best friend and much appreciated.

  Thank you.

  Andrew Dobell.

  The New

  Prometheus

  Book 1 on Amazon NOW!

  Blurb for Book One

  In a world ruled by faceless, uncaring mega corporations, Frankie, a young woman, becomes the victim of a lethal Jacker gang attack. Bleeding to death in the slums of Neo London, she is found by a genius cybernetic doctor on the run from a powerful Corporation. Seeing an opportunity to finish his latest cybernetic masterpiece, he transplants Frankie’s brain into a powerful prosthetic body.

  Frankie has barely woken up before the Corporate forces attack and kidnap the doctor, forcing Frankie to go on the run in her new body. Pursued by Corporation Special Forces, cybernetic agents, and hulking mechs, Frankie has to choose what to do with her new body and its incredible abilities.

  Frankie must overcome the shock of her new body and survive ruthless attacks and figure out who to trust if she is to save the doctor's life and strike her first real blow against the tyrannical Corporations.

  Praise for book 1 from Reviews

  “Story is good and fast paced, main character is awesome.”

  “Can't wait for next book to come out. I love the story and hope she kicks corporate butt.”

  “This was good! Lots of action good story and quick pacing. Interesting characters, strong and vulnerable at the same time. I really enjoyed this and am looking forward to the next instalment!”

  “Loved the action pace and speed of the book. Will certainly read the next instalment.”

  The Prometheus

  Gambit

  Book 2 on Amazon NOW!

  Recruited to the newly formed A.C.T. (Anti-Corporation
Taskforce), Frankie, a full body cyborg, leads her team in a fight against the unchecked power of the Corporations in the city of Neo-London in 2124AD.

  A plan is formulated to inflict the first significant damage to the power of the Corporations and free millions from the grip of these capitalist overlords.

  Frankie and her team must travel the world, visiting the war zone that is America, the mega cities of the far east and the industrial heartlands of Europe in their quest to take on the Corporations, while remaining hidden from them at the same time.

  The stakes are raised when the corporations reveal the lengths they will go to to protect their own interests.

  Frankie must fight her way through war zones, Corporation operatives, battle mech’s and sabotage if she is going to really hurt the Corporations and change the world for the better.

  Praise for book 2 from Reviews

  “Didn't even have to read what the book was about, loved book 1and knew I had to have book 2. Couldn't put it down and the worst part is now waiting for book 3”

  “If you're a fan of Stand Alone Complex you will LOVE this book. The author captures the same high stakes political drama and cybertech but in an original setting. The government backed paramilitary team fighting against the self intetests of the corporations is done well and leaves the door open for new adventures. Highly recommended and entertaining.”

  “Just as great as the first book and better still! Want book 3 !”

  EPIC CALLING

  The MAGI SAGA

  When a Demon werewolf attacks you in a New York alleyway, and you fight back with magic you didn't know existed, it's fair to say life's going to change a bit!