Dead Man Running (23 page)

Acknowledgements

This job would be impossible if it weren't for my family and friends, who are spectacularly supportive, understanding and honest (when the occasion calls for it). You know who you are. Special thanks to Mum and Dad, still taking care of me; Tom, still inspiring me; and Venetia, still everything I need.

A big thanks to everyone at Pan Macmillan Australia, especially Claire Craig and Brianne Collins, whose guidance made this a better book.

Anyone can write, but few can earn a living from it – I'd like to thank my wonderful literary agent, Clare Forster, and her colleagues at Curtis Brown for making me one of the lucky ones. Thank you also to Stephanie Thwaites, Megan Larkin and Usborne Publishing for believing in my books and making them available to 63 million more readers.

Thanks to Andrew Phillips, whose nautical expertise saved Agent Six from several terminological blunders (those that remain are mine, not his). Thanks to Russell and Anna Holden, who let me sleep in the spare room while I was touring. Thanks and apologies to Randall Munroe, who is misquoted by a character in this book. Thank you to my creative writing class; I learned at least as much from you as you did from me.

Thank you to the authors who shared some wisdom and some laughs: Randa Abdel-Fattah, Tom Cho, Anthony Eaton, Bret Easton Ellis, Shamini Flint, Melinda Hutchings, Tony Martin, Angela Meyer, Omar Musa, and Penni Russon. Love your work.

I really, really wanted to write this book, but it wouldn't have been viable if it weren't for the legions of Agent Six fans who loved
The Lab
enough to recommend it to their friends and students. So thank you to my readers – you made this book happen.

Jack Heath was born in Sydney in 1986. He was thirteen when he started writing his first novel, and he had a publishing contract for it at eighteen.

His second book,
Remote Control
, was shortlisted for best sci-fi novel in the 2007 Aurealis Awards, and in 2009 he was named ACT Young Australian of the Year. His books are now published in eight countries and three languages (English, Australian English, and American English).

He lives in Canberra with his partner, Venetia. By night he sleeps in a titanium cage in case the aliens come for him again.

Dead Man Running
is his sixth book.

jackheath.com.au

Also by Jack Heath

The Lab

Remote Control

Third Transmission

Money Run

Hit List

Jack Heath

The Lab

Meet a 16-year-old superhuman: Agent Six of Hearts.

He is the strongest, fastest, most invincible agent in the Deck, a team of special agents fighting to uphold values in a city dominated by the company ChaoSonic.

But Six has a deadly secret. He is the product of an illegal genetic experiment by the Lab – a ruthless division of ChaoSonic.

When the Deck begins investigating the Lab, Six walks a tightrope between his two worlds, trying to keep his origins hidden from those around him. But then he meets Kyntak, a boy with the same designer DNA.

As Six's life spirals out of control, he must face his most dangerous mission yet.

Jack Heath

Remote Control

Agent Six of Hearts – a 16-year-old superhuman – is on a mission
.

Kyntak has been kidnapped.

A sinister new power is rising in the City.

Six is suspected of being a double agent.

The Deck has been put into lockdown by the Queen of Spades.

Who can Six trust? The mysterious girl who appears as his guardian angel? Or Retuni Lerke – the ‘father' he has never known?

As the clock ticks steadily against Kyntak's life, Six of Hearts is on the run: from his past, his fellow agents at the Deck, even his own DNA . . .

Jack Heath

Third Transmission

Six of Hearts is sealed inside a torpedo, blasting his way at 300 kilometres an hour towards a warship. His mission: to steal canisters containing a weaponised strain of the SARS virus. If he fails, ChaoSonic will use the virus to wipe out an uprising that is tearing the City apart.

And that is the least of Six's problems. Vanish is still on the loose. So is Retuni Lerke. And a scientist has designed a new weapon – one more dangerous than anything Six has ever seen before. One that could destroy him, the Deck, and anyone else who dares to oppose ChaoSonic.

Six has to find the weapon and eliminate the threat it poses because ChaoSonic can't always control their creations.

He is living proof of that.

Third Transmission
, the third
Six of Hearts
title, is the electrifying new novel from the author of
The Lab
,
Remote Control
and
Money Run
.

Jack Heath

Money Run

Take two child geniuses (thieves in their spare time), one obsessed assassin, and the richest man in the world to create a compelling, completely unpredictable young adult thriller.

Fifteen-year-olds Ashley and Benjamin have concocted a daring master plan: to steal billionaire Hammond Buckland's most precious belonging, hidden in the depths of his conspicuous corporate building. But Hammond Buckland has a most elaborate plan of his own – and none of them have counted on Peachey, the hit man with a determination to finish the job – at any cost!

The beginning of a dazzling new series from Jack Heath, author of
The Lab
and
Remote Control
.

Jack Heath

Hit List

Ash and Benjamin are teenage mercenaries. They find stolen artefacts and return them to the owners – for a fee.

But when they are hired to rescue an imprisoned girl, they realise they're in over their heads. Because there are others looking for the girl too: corrupt governments, ruthless corporations, rogue assassins.

As these forces converge on the place where the girl is trapped – the headquarters of the world's biggest intelligence agency – Ash realises she's made a terrible mistake; one that may cost her and Benjamin their lives . . .

First published 2012 in Pan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
1 Market Street, Sydney 2000

Copyright © Jack Heath 2012
The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.

This ebook may not include illustrations and/or photographs that may have been in the print edition.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Heath, Jack, 1986–.
Dead man running / Jack Heath.

EPUB format: 9781742628509

A823.4

The characters and events in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Internal design by Melanie Feddersen, i2i design
Typeset in 12/16 pt Minion by Midland Typesetters, Australia

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