HELLBENT: AN ORPHAN X NOVEL by Gregg Hurwitz / Z-View

HELLBENT: AN ORPHAN X NOVEL by Gregg Hurwitz

First sentences…

Evan moved swiftly through the door to his penthouse suite at the Castle Heights Residential Tower, his RoamZone pressed to his ear.  The phone, encased in hardened rubber and Gorilla glass, was as durable as a hockey puck and essentially impossible to trace.  Every incoming call to 1-855-2-NOWHERE traveled in digital form over the internet through a labyrinth of encrypted virtual-private-network tunnels.  After a round-the-world tour of software telephone-switch destinations, it emerged through the receiver of the RoamZone.

Evan always answered the phone the same way.

Do you need my help?

This time, for the first time, the voice on the other end was a familiar one.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Evan Smoak and other children without families were raised in a secret off-the-books government program.  The children were called Orphans. Evan was Orphan X.

The Orphans were trained to become the ultimate assassins. As adults, they were perfect for black bag assignments. Able to kill with their hands, or any weapon, they possessed every strategy to alone and covertly complete a mission. If caught or killed, because they had no family, the government had plausible deniability.

Orphan X became a legend whose name was spoken in whispers.

Finally, Evan Smoak had enough killing. He escaped and set up a new life. Instead of taking lives, he saved them. Smoak found people with nowhere to turn and rescued them.

Evan never dreamed he would receive a call for help from Jack Johns.  Johns was the closest thing to a father Evan ever had. Now Evan has an assignment.  Find and save a sixteen year old girl Van Sciver has marked for death.

Van Sciver, the new director of the Orphan program, wants Evan dead.  Van  Sciver knows going after the child will expose Evan.  And Van Sciver will be ready with every assassin at his disposal.

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Greg Hurwitz’s ORPHAN X novels are immediate must buys for me.  Each new tale is intelligent, entertaining and builds on what came before.

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