Points of View: The Weapons

Table of Contents

Chapter One – A New Ability

Chapter Two – The Eyes Have It Again

Chapter Three – No Reason to Escape

Chapter Four – A Deadly Weapon?

Chapter Five – A Simple Job on the Side

Chapter Six – Not So Simple!

Chapter Seven – Mission Impossible?

Chapter Eight – Blackout!

Chapter Nine – Revelations

Chapter Ten – Communication!

Chapter Eleven – The First Lead

Chapter Twelve – The Hideout

Chapter Thirteen – Escape?

Chapter Fourteen – The Helmet

Chapter Fifteen – The French Lead

Chapter Sixteen – A Lone Terrorist

Chapter Seventeen – The Chase

Chapter Eighteen – Another Hideout

Chapter Nineteen – The Assault

Chapter Twenty – Briefing

Chapter Twenty-One – The Hunt

Chapter Twenty-Two – The Big Drop

Chapter Twenty-Three – Inside the Castle

Chapter Twenty-Four – Who Was It?

Chapter Twenty-Five – Inside the Hill

Chapter Twenty-Six – The Control Center

Chapter Twenty-Seven – Epilogue

About the Author

POINTS OF VIEW – The Weapons

By: Tony Thorne MBE

ASIN: B00F0MS01E

Published by Etcetera Press - Smashwords edition

Cover by: The author & Fiverr

Copyright 2013-7 © Tony Thorne MBE

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any form, including digital and electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the Publisher, except for brief quotes for use in reviews.

This book is a work of fiction. Characters, names, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Dedication

My grateful thanks to the late, legendary, Harry Harrison, the brilliant American Science Fiction Writer and good friend, who inspired me to write this series of novels. Also to Dr. Wolfgang Weinstabl, of the Korneuburg Hospital, Austria, who replaced my right hip-joint when I needed it.

Prologue – The story so far

Horace Mayberry, an orphan, living with his elderly aunt and her housekeeper in a fashionable part of London, was devastated when he lost the use of his eyes in his early teens. Numerous consultants examined him but they all confirmed that nothing could be done to restore his sight. Accepting his fate, he became a recluse, learned Braille, and sought refuge in reading spy stories. These often caused him to dream about recovering his sight and becoming a secret agent. He always enjoyed his dreams because they were the only way he had left to him to see anything at all. Interesting things happened to him in them, unlike in his waking hours.

Soon after his eighteenth birthday, he met an eminent surgeon, Professor Oscar Freeman, who offered him a free operation to provide him with artificial eyes—the result of developments in advanced nanotechnology. Horace felt apprehensive but agreed to the operation, which took three days to complete, and was successful. The friendly professor, who insisted on being called by his first name, explained to Horace that his new eyes contained intelligent nanophytes able to be instructed by his brain to develop new facilities as required by any threatening situations he might happen to experience.

The professor took him to a house near his laboratory, where his secretary and her partner lived, for a discussion about Horace’s future. He learned that an extensive training program had been arranged for him. An initial test showed that he was sensitive to the Wi-Fi radiation emanating from computer network systems. The session was interrupted when three thugs forced their way into the house and Horace was abducted. The kidnappers were working for Rudolph Beckmann, the billionaire leader of a sinister international organization after the secrets of the bionic eyes. Horace was taken to Beckmann’s mansion in the country, north of London. There, he was talked into accepting a recording telephone and agreeing to use it to make a record of his first day’s training in the professor’s laboratory.

Later, and although apparently about to be returned to the professor's laboratory unharmed, he was rescued by his future companion agent, Aubrey Jackson, and taken to Viewpoint Headquarters, a secret government secret location, where he met Colonel Barker and learned more about the future being planned for him. That evening he reluctantly called Beckmann and was given instructions about using the recording telephone device that Beckmann had given him. However, realizing the spot he was in he decided to confess. The professor destroyed the device. The next day he was taken to a special army training center where he embarked on a series of training courses under the care of a resourceful instructor, Corporal Harry Jenkins, and his senior non-commissioned officer, Staff Sergeant Kelly.

Horace’ s dreams became more frequent and began to reflect the suppressed anxieties he felt regarding his future performance as an efficient secret agent. Each dream involved him in yet another hazardous mission, which seemed to end in some kind of a disaster. For example…

He sets charges to blow up an enemy nuclear laboratory and then finds himself trapped inside it.

He hands over a bag of fake ransom money to a gang of kidnappers in exchange for a pretty girl victim, only to discover that he has inadvertently caused his rescue helicopter to arrive early.

Bound in a cell in a high tower, he manages to cut himself free, only to realize that the rope he needs to lower himself down is now cut into small pieces.

He is lowered from a helicopter onto the roof of a speeding train, to eavesdrop on a conversation between two dangerous spies in the compartment below him. He then notices that the train will soon enter a very low tunnel.

In a nightmare, he finds he has changed sides and is working for Beckmann. While visiting a seedy night club, he is captured at gunpoint by a dancer who hands him over to Captain Jackson. He is then introduced to a changed Corporal Jenkins who has been blinded in a munitions accident and now wants Horace’s eyes.

* * * *

As Horace’s confidence grew with experience, the nanophytes in his new eyes evolved more abilities, and his character and personality also developed. He became impulsive. His first mission with his minder, Captain Jackson, revealed more uses for his new eyes. With their help and the use of a model helicopter, the two agents broke into Beckmann’s mansion and hacked into his computer and also rescued Aubrey’s girlfriend, Gwen. Beckmann and his henchmen intercepted them, but they managed to escape and return to Gwen’s houseboat residence on the river Thames.

Back at headquarters the next morning, Horace met with Technical Sergeant Daniels and downloaded the data files from Beckmann’s computer that his eyes had stored. The information revealed various shady deals, money laundering activities, and plans to buy out the professor’s research company.

Back at the houseboat, Gwen introduced Horace to her friend, Janet, and the quartet celebrated together in a cabaret club restaurant where Horace sees Carl Peterson, the leader of Beckmann’s henchmen, with a girl who seemed to be the nurse from the professor’s laboratory. Jackson arranged for the couple to be apprehended and taken in for interrogation. Later, during the cabaret, using the zoom lens function of his eyes, Horace managed to confuse a stage magician.

The next day, Colonel Barker sent the two intrepid agents off to Guernsey, one of the British Channel Islands, to try to persuade a wealthy resident there not to invest in any of Beckmann’s shady ventures. While Jackson was finding out where the man is located, Horace had a pleasant sight-seeing trip around the island before meeting up with his partner again and to visit Johnson’s residence. Once outside the place, Horace collapsed from a dose of Wi-Fi radiation coming from the house. Here covered once he was inside. The two agents met the elderly recluse, Owen Johnson, and his new financial advisor, Doris, who turned out to be Beckmann’s ex-wife. When Jackson told them how the financier was planning to take over Professor Freeman’s research company, they agreed to assist in any way they could.

Back in England, Jackson drove Horace to Professor Freeman’s laboratory where they were astonished to meet by the nurse they saw taken away from the nightclub the evening before. The professor explained that Peterson has twin daughters and he was sure that the nurse working in his laboratory had not been in touch with her crooked father, or her evil sister, for several years. Reassured, Jackson departed to enjoy an evening with Gwen, while the professor left Horace in the care of the nurse. However, she revealed herself as the released other sister who had earlier kidnapped her twin and left her outside in Beckmann’s car, guarded by Turner, his chauffeur. She took Horace at gunpoint to the car and then Turner drove them to a private airfield where Beckmann was waiting in his executive Learjet.

The next morning, Jackson returned to the laboratory to collect Horace, only to find him gone and no sign of the nurse. The professor’s location equipment was switched on and Aubrey realized, from the scan, that Horace must be airborne.

Jackson called headquarters and told Colonel Barker what had happened. He was furious with him for leaving Horace, but arranged for a Harrier jet and pilot to be available at headquarters for Jackson to follow Horace and his kidnappers. Meanwhile, Sergeant Daniels was standing by the more powerful location equipment, to monitor progress and liaise with Jackson.

Beckmann’s Learjet flew south, past the French and Spanish coasts and the Portuguese island of Madeira, eventually to Tenerife, the largest of the Spanish Canary Islands. On arrival at the main airport, the aircraft was immediately surrounded by an impatient and heavily armed police squad, commanded by an overeager Inspector Garcia, but with instructions to await the arrival of Captain Jackson.

After a short refueling stop, aboard a convenient American aircraft carrier, the Harrier pilot eventually landed his aircraft beside the Learjet, allowing Jackson to jump out and meet the impatient inspector. They were about to storm the executive jet when its door opened to reveal the real nurse, unharmed. Gun at the ready, Jackson climbed into the Learjet and was amazed to see Horace with a small machine gun, taken from Turner, gleefully covering the driver plus Beckmann, the nurse’s twin sister, and the two pilots, all of whom had been incapacitated by a new beam weapon developed by Horace’s intelligent eyes, just when he needed it.

The inspector and his men took the prisoners away to some cells in the airport terminal building. Horace and Jackson retired to one of the airport restaurants for some refreshments, where Horace revealed that his eyes had freed him, by creating some kind of high-intensity beam that disrupted a layer of the molecules in the chain of the handcuffs which had secured him to one of the metal arms of a seat in the Learjet. Thereafter, taking his captors by surprise, he had partially blinded them with his new disabling beam weapon. Later, when the aircraft had eventually landed, he had similarly disabled the two pilots when they emerged from the cockpit into the passengers’ cabin.

Enjoying refreshments in the airport restaurant, the two agents were interrupted by a phone call from the colonel and the arrival of an apologetic inspector announcing that Beckmann had escaped from his cell after bribing a jailor. Thereafter, he was met by Peterson’s two henchmen with a taxi that took them up to his villa in the interior of the island.

The two intrepid agents, plus the inspector and his eager team, went after them. Arriving at the villa, Horace dismantled the main door lock and then disabled the two thugs with his beam weapons. Satellite pictures transmitted to his eyes by Sergeant Daniels revealed that Beckmann had a small helicopter up on the roof of the villa. Jackson and the inspector raced up the stairways to intercept it just as Beckmann was taking off. The inspector shot out the tail propeller, causing the aircraft to spin down and crash on the roof of the villa. The resulting explosion threw Beckmann out of the machine with his clothes on fire, but Captain Jackson managed to roll him over to put out the flames and save him.

The police squad took charge of the three prisoners and drove them to a more secure jail. Horace and Jackson flew back to London Heathrow airport, where they were met by Sergeant Daniels and taken to headquarters for debriefing. Recorded data from the computer they found in the villa was downloaded from Horace’s eyes and revealed even more details of Beckmann’s shady financial transactions.

Later that night, after more celebrations with Aubrey and the girls, Horace had his most satisfactory dream ever, wherein playing poker in a casino his cards won all of Beckmann’s fortune, enabling him to make an interesting proposal to Janet.

When he awoke the following morning, with a happy smile on his face, He decided to keep the dream to himself, but he did think hard about it.

Chapter One – A New Ability

With no urgent missions to be undertaken, he settled down to more training in the professor’s laboratory, learning how to better handle the hazards of Wi-Fi radiation. Occasionally, Aubrey was able to arrange an evening out with the girls, Janet and Gwen, much to Horace’s delight.

The following week, Professor Freeman’s secretary had some bad news for him. His elderly aunt was gravely ill. Horace became overcome with guilt at not having seen her for so long.

I must go and see her, he protested to Aubrey, shedding a tear or two. It could be for the last time.

His request was approved by the colonel, but reluctantly, insisting that, as always for security reasons, he must be accompanied by Captain Jackson.

On arrival at the house in Kensington, Horace was greeted by a sad-faced Mrs. Enright, who announced that his aunt had taken a turn for the worse early that morning. Horace rushed up to her bedroom, followed by a somewhat reluctant and embarrassed Aubrey. Leaning over the bed, he gave his aunt an affectionate hug and a gentle kiss. However, although she opened her eyes and stared at her two visitors, she did not recognize her nephew, and sadly passed away later the same evening, soon after her doctor arrived to join them.

Some weeks later, with the property in Kensington sold, and his old housekeeper suitably compensated and rehoused. Horace accepted the inevitable offer from his mentor. He moved out from his room in Professor Freeman’s laboratory and happily relocated to his own room in Aubrey Jackson’s spacious London apartment, situated close to the river in the fashionable Docklands area.

A week later found him lounging on his comfortable settee, idly watching television. However, he was really thinking back, during the advertising breaks, about the delightful time he and Aubrey had spent with their girlfriends, Gwen and Janet, the previous evening. After a while, becoming bored with a program, he switched to a different channel. Then later, still bored, he switched to yet another one. He was not using the remote control unit, however. He had recently discovered that he could send coded infrared signals from his eyes, and not only the steady illuminating beams he had often used, on a nighttime mission.

At first it had been a simple trial and error session for him, selecting his favorite