Agent Six of Hearts braced his hands against the hot walls of his steel coffin. The rubber pillow under his head barely lessened the shuddering against his skull as his tiny vessel blasted through the ocean. The web of safety straps around his torso hummed like high-voltage power cables.
He checked the flickering screen above his head. Altitude: 28 metres below sea level. Speed: 150 kilometres per hour. Distance from target: 5.9 kilometres. A little over two minutes to go, he calculated.
Six is back in his fourth adventure and the stakes are the highest yet. The action begins with Six being propelled in a modified torpedo through the ocean towards a large battleship. His mission is to prevent ChaoSonic releasing their latest weapon, a deadly virus designed to wipe out resistance in the South Side of the City. Despite the challenges, this is a relatively routine mission, he thinks. But nothing can prepare Six for the challenges he will encounter, the first of them within minutes of boarding the battleship. Each skirmish he faces adds to his mystery and confusion. Nothing is as he expects. Who is calling the shots? There are several contenders: a villain he’s battled before; the man responsible for his existence: and a scientist and her invention. His people are threatened, danger is everywhere, and time is short.
Third Transmission is an adventure in time and place. Set in a future world there is enough familiar to ground the reader but enough technology to make almost anything possible, it’s a wild ride. The City is controlled (mostly) by ChaoSonic and the sea is held back by a Sea Wall. Current environmental predictions have proved true and rising seas, pollution and acid rain are all part of Six’s world. Heath embraces scientific technology fact and theory and uses his hero’s speculations and discoveries to allow the reader access to the wildest of possibilities. Six is chronologically an adolescent but mostly he performs as a highly trained operative. In this instalment of Six’s adventures, Heath has allowed his character to show some emotional development appropriate to his age. Recommended for futuristic adventure lovers 13+.
Third Transmission, Jack Heath
Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 9780330425100
review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author
www.clairesaxby.com
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