Exiles to Hell: Book Summary
The Series opens with Kane, Salvo, Grant, Pollard and several other Magistrates are in Deathbirds flying down a canyon. On the way they are attacked by a computerized phalanx system but easily evade it, then destroy it.
They are forced to fight their way into a fortress where a man named Milton Reeth is hiding. They have termination warrants and Salvo tells Kane to issue it on sight, without hesitation.
The Magistrates get past the guards, but suffer two casualties. When Kane and Grant catch up to Milton, he's in the process of downloading data from a computer onto a CD rom. Miltons strong arm, a stickie female is killed and while they are waiting for Salvo to reach them, curiosity gets the better of Kane and he pockets the CD Rom.
While they wait, Kane interrogates the man. He finds out that Milton Reeth is trading in human flesh. To whom, he doesn't know. He forces the man to show him the merchandise. The captives are all disease ridden outlanders, the worst of humanity.
At the same time, they spot a gateway inside the redoubt. He and Grant discuss the legends they all have heard about the mystical gateways that would allow instantaneous travel all over the world.
Finally Salvo arrives and demands to know why he didn't serve the Termination Warrant on site like he ordered Kane to do. He is angry but lets it slide for the time being. He kills Milton and the group head back to Cobaltville.
After returning to the ville, they are quite surprised to discover that they are not given the standard debriefing. Instead, Kane is called into Salvo's office and his supervisor demands to know what Kane had seen inside the fortress, as well as if he had taken anything.
Kane lies, telling him that he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, nor did he take anything. He sends Kane to his home.
Salvo is then ordered to go see the Baron and his trust. The baron is an odd looking man and wants to know how the operation went. Now that Reeth is gone, the baron puts Salvo in his previous position, which was the acquisition of healthy goods. The trust wants Salvo to make Kane his right hand man, and in order to insure that he joins willingly, the baron orders Grant to be killed, and messily.
Kane decides to head down to the intell section to have a look at what is on the disk. He talks to a tech, who is quite surprised that he can't get into the data on the disk because the data is coded and encrypted. He pulls out a special code breaking device called a syn, and is even more surprised when the device is unable to crack it again.
Kane decides to head home and warns the tech not to tell anyone about the encounter. At his modest home he cracks open a bottle of alcohol that Grant gave to him and gets slightly drunk. He then remembers a woman he'd seen before who is an archivist. Her name is Baptist and he hopes that she will be able to break the code and reveal what is on the disk.
Baptist had just finished a shower and is seated before her computer terminal, wearing not a stitch of clothing. She is shocked when Kane walks in as bold as he would please and hands her the disk.
Reluctantly she cracks the code on the disk and access the data. The data is a record of transactions, the selling of outlanders. Both of them have their curiosity perked. Kane gathers the disk and promises to come back later to continue looking over the data.
The next day Grant comes to wake up Kane. They talk about what is happening, since its so unusual and head out to get their duty assignments for the day. Both are surprised even more when they are assigned a pit sweep patrol with a new magistrate. That is highly unusual.
They check out one hundred pit inhabitants and come across an albino girl. Everyone is surprised when it turns out that her chip implant is bogus. She escapes and leads them on a chase, but not before warning them that they are in Danger.
The head of the pit is a man named Guana Teague, a direct descendant of Jordan Teague, who was killed by Cort Strasser nearly a century before. He is in the middle of a pit auction with his two guards Uno and Dos standing guard. When things start to turn a little ugly he heads back to his private hovel. Here he is about to get his personal sex slave, an albino girl named Domi to perform oral sex on him when a secret communicator goes off.
The speaker orders him to have the Magistrate, Grant killed. Very publicly and very messily. Reluctantly he takes the twin UZI's that he was given to pull off the assassination.
Teague sends his two right hand men, Uno and Dos to take out Grant. They set up a deadly ambush but instead of killing Grant, kill the new magistrate that they have with him, a man named Boon.
Kane enters the building where the two strong arms are held up and gives them one chancce to surrender. They stupidly refuse to take that offer. Kane shoots out the supports holding the second floor aloft and captures Dos. Kane is about to start the interrogation when Uno kills the other man, much to Kane's surprise. He nearly manages to kill Kane as well and uses this near miss to make his escape.
A Magistrate named Morals waits near Brigid's place for her to leave for work. When she leaves he enters her small apartment and begins to search for evidence that she is a member of the preservationists. He activates her computer and by pure luck figures out the password. He finds the evidence he was searching for.
While Brigid is working, she uses her mentor, Lakesh's personal password to access a file she wants to learn more about. She discovers more about the totalitarian concept than she wanted to in a matter of a few minutes. It's at this time that she is arrested for being a preservationist.
Kane and Grant head back to the tower after the failed ambush. Kane takes the Uzi to the evidence room, where he discovers that they had a matched pair before. This piques his curiosity greatly. He is also even more surprised when he recognizes the computer terminal that Brigid had used the night before. He leaves to get to the bottom of it.
On the way he encounters Salvo leading Brigid to the holding cells. He admits to finding the CD rom and Salvo lets him know that he isn't in trouble because they were able to catch a member of the preservationists because of it.
Salvo sends Brigid to the cells and demands that Kane follow him. They go into his office and he demands that Kane leave his Sin Eater, his overcoat and glasses behind. Reluctantly, he does what he is told and follows Salvo.
Kane is taken to see the baron where he is told all about the truth behind what is going on with the baronies and the barons. He learns of the Archon Directive and the Totalitarian concept. When the speech is over, he is asked to willingly join the trust and serve like his ancestors had.
Kane agrees, and puts as much heart as he can into his repetition of the vows and then becomes a member of the trust.
After the initiation, Salvo goes to interrogate Brigid. He demands that she name her cohorts who are members of the preservationists. She talks to him, but is unable to convince him that she doesn't know any other preservationists. During the talk, she learns that he despises Kane. He tells her that her trial is to be held next morning, at 8 AM sharp. Her execution is to be held at 8:30.
The next day Grant is trying to figure out exactly what had happened. He tries to contact Kane and Salvo but is unable to. Finally, after a few attempts Salvo contacts him and lets him know that he believes that he is responsible for the theft of the Uzi's. He demands that Grant wait for his fellow Magistrates to come and pick up his weapon and gear.
Only a few minutes after the talk Kane contacts Grant and tells him to escape as quick as he can. Salvo's men are going to kill him when they arrive. Grant trusts his friend and takes off, using a maintenance hatch that he and Kane had discovered years before to make his way to the pits.
In the pits, Grant heads to Teagues warehouse and confronts both Guana and his surviving strong arm. He demands to know what happened and learns that it was a fellow Magistrate that put the hit out on him. He ends up killing the strong arm and in the struggle, Domi manages to cut Teagues throat, killing the man.
Once again Salvo contacts him and demands that he stay put until his men can arrive. He is quite angry that Grant would ignore his orders and try to escape like he did.
Brigid is taken to her trial where she talks directly to the baron via video cameras. Despite her argument, he still sentences her to death for sedition. Magistrates come to take her to the execution chamber. She is freed when Kane locks up the others and they make a break for it. They both take the same maintenance tunnel and escape to the pits.
Kane lets her know he plans to smuggle her into the outlands, but has to hook up with Grant first. When he gets to Teagues home, he finds that Salvo and a group of Magistrates are waiting for him. As usual, Salvo demands that he give himself up.
A firefight ensues, but they are able to get into a sand cat that Teague had for his own personal transportation into the Outlands. They know it's only a matter of time before Salvo dispatches a flight of Deathbirds to stop them.
Knowing the only way they can escape for sure is to head for the Mesa canyon and use the gateway they spotted there.
Just as they reach the fortress they come under attack from two Deathbirds. Kane is able to shoot down one and damages the other. They make it into the fortress.
When they arrive they discover that all the corpses are gone. They spot a strange figure while they are heading towards the gateway. Pollard attacks on foot and they race into the ante room where the gateway is located.
Brigid types in three codes for alternate gateways and discovers that they are all inactive. The fourth code works and they jump to a gateway located in what used to be Montana.
Here they meet up with Lakesh and his exiles. The group is disarmed and then given a chance to clean up. Lakesh then takes them to meet the only living Archon that they have ever seen.
They discover exactly what they are up against. The group agrees to stay and work with Lakes and his people. They are given separate rooms so they can get the rest they need. The next morning Lakesh is going to send them to the redoubt in Dulce where they will learn even more.
The next morning everyone leaves for the Dulce redoubt except for Domi who decides to stay behind.
In the Dulce redoubt they discover it’s a breeding chamber for Archon/Human Hybrids. Kane finds his father in cryonic storage, and that his genetic material was used in the creation of the hybrids. They are almost caught while exploring and Kane encounters Baron Cobalt. He almost chokes the baron to death.
They have to fight their way back to the gateway and manage to kill quite a number of the Hybrids, but suffer wounds of their own in the battle. Kane has his wrist broken by one of the Hybrids sonic weapons.
Two days pass and they rest up. What they have learned weighs heavily on the entire group.
End of Exiles to Hell.