Devil's Pocket [Paperback]

The follow-up to the critically acclaimedPhoenix Island, which reads like “Lord of the Fliesmeets Wolverine andCool Hand Luke” (F. Paul Wilson, creator of Repairman Jack) and inspired the CBS TV showIntelligence.

With a chip in his head and hundreds more throughout his body, sixteen-year-old Carl Freeman was turned from an orphan with impulse control issues into a super-soldier. Forced into the mercenary Phoenix Force group, he begins to fear he’ll never escape. Sent to a volcanic island to fight for them, he’ll compete in a combat tournament that awards teens with survival for merciless brutality. But just when all looks lost, he spies a friendly face…and possibly a way out.Devil's Pocket

ONE

GUARDS STEPPED ASIDE, and Carl strode into Training Base One. New recruits stood in ranks near the loading bay of an equipment shed, their freshly buzzed scalps shiny in the bright sunlight and streaked red by the clipper blades. The formation vibrated with fear.

Drill sergeants lurked, scowling.

At a glance, Carl noted injured sergeants—split lips, bloody noses, the red O of a bite mark on one forearm—and a massive kid sitting on the ground with splayed legs and his back to the loading-dock wall. The kid stared straight ahead, looking stunned, holding his nose.

Had this huge newcomer gotten into it with the sergeants? No. He wasn’t restrained, and no one was eyeballing him. Not him, then—someone else.

Bang-bang-bang.

The metal shed door rippled with impact. It sounded like a mule was trapped in there, kicking its way out.

Someone had knocked it with the big kid and the cadre, and now they had him locked up in there.

And Carl knew in his gut who it wl³'