Valkyrie - A Partial Synopsis
November 2006 Washington, D.C.: Myla Henderson, 27, a member of the nine-
member all-female Valkyries, an insurgent unit within the resistance movement
The Underground, fights and spies against the Locusts, human-locust masters of
East America. The Locusts came into existence because the powers that be
needed cheap labor and military cannon fodder, but after President Britainy
Maines demobilized much of the U.S. Armed Forces, the Locusts staged a bloody
coup at the highest levels of government, placing President Maines under house
arrest. Led by Adol Cojo, they plan to annex West America after destroying its
capital, Chicago, with a nuclear weapon.
The Locust rule with an iron, but inconsistent hand—while they let most
institutions operate as usual, they ultimately pull the strings at all levels of
government and business. Every city is governed by rulers with the salutation
minister. D.C. is ruled by Minister Dojo. Anti-government speech and even petty
criminal behavior can get one sent to a Canadian labor camp. Myla’s ex-lover had
been sent to Canada some time ago, crystallizing her decision to join the
Underground.
Myla has a power she calls the Diamond of the Blue. She can levitate, become
invisible, walk through walls and can display super speed and power in short
bursts. She has had this power the last four years of her life. Her power is
mysterious and unexplained.
Myla’s Underground chief, Napoleon, summons her to Underground
Headquarters, and informs her the Locusts are collecting much more data on
Maryland gun owners than he, or Underground President Patterson would like.
After saving her brother’s life, who had been detained at the data center for
protesting, destroying the data center, and killing Washington, D.C.'s Minister Dojo
in one night, Myla meets and dates two men, her boss Kurt Brooks, 30, and
Spyder George, 31, Chief Counsel for her employer, Raybuco Machines, who
eventually betrays her identity to the Locusts. She discovers that Kurt has many of
the same extraordinary powers she does, but he sees a red diamond in his
minds eye instead of a blue one as she does.
Spyder George is secretly working with corporate raider Avery McAuliffe, who
seeks control of Raybuco Machines so he can obtain its wireless technology and
sell it to the Locusts. Avery loses a brutal board room showdown to Bull Rogan,
the founder and owner of Raybuco Machines, after Rogan learns of Avery's plot to
take controlling interest in his company. Spyder George stands in the board
room watching this, secretly plotting against his boss Bull Rogan.
Myla is assigned the task of wiping out a Locust sniper team that has been killing
civilians and blaming the shootings on common criminals. After destroying the
sniper team with explosives, Myla discovers that the sniper team’s activities were
designed to lure and kill her; she finds a picture of herself among the debris in the
sniper team’s apartment. Myla rushes back to her apartment, and using the ruse
of calling a pizza delivery man, gains entry into her place, killing the locust
assassin waiting for her and knocking the pizza delivery man into a coma. Myla
goes on the run.
Myla has two primary goals: prevent the nuclear annihilation of West America and
take revenge on Spyder George.
The Locusts want her ostensively for the murder of a locust “cop”, but secretly for
destroying the data center and inadvertently killing their Minister Dojo of
Washington, D.C.
The Locusts send a bounty hunter, Naroki, a female locust, after Myla. Driven in a
beat up van by Underground driver Dario Nepa, Myla reaches the North Carolina
farm of Mr. Wallace, who becomes her mentor. She has nightmares about
locusts she has killed. Mr. Wallace helps her focus and overcome her fear of
death and failure--she matures.
Naroki captures two of the Valkyries, Sydney Lanham and Carol Sofer, and the
Locusts hold them in exchange for Myla.
Simultaneous with Myla’s story, Arnold Shipyaz, 51, an eccentric entrepreneur,
attempts to seize the city of Pittsburgh and turn it into a socialist city-state, using
his own private gang-infused army called The Crucible. In the process, he saves
Ricky Banks, the son of Myla’s friend and co-worker Tressa Banks, from certain
capture and death and enlists his aid. Ricky and his friend Berry had been
tapped, unbeknownst to them, to record a commercial for narcotic laced chewing
gum. The Locusts had sought to eliminate Ricky and Berry, showing up at their
high school to arrest them, but they escaped.
Ricky and Berry were hiding in the luggage compartment of a commuter bus the
night when Shipyaz and his wife saved them. They were out looking for Ricky and
Berry because Shipyaz’s daughter had a crush on Ricky, a high school tailback,
and she told them about their near arrest at school that day. For Shipyaz, finding
young idealistic men for his cause was too much to pass up...
cCopyright 2007 William Powell Jr.
VALKYRIE - A Novel of Adventure
