Hellraisers (Book)

Hellraisers is the first book in The Devil's Engine trilogy by Alexander Gordon Smith.

Synopsis
''The Devil’s Engine is a machine from the darkest parts of history. It can make any wish come true—as long as you are willing to put your life on the line. When a sixteen-year-old asthmatic kid named Marlow Green finds himself trapped in a surreal firefight against nightmarish creatures in the middle of his New York City neighborhood, he discovers a squad of secret soldiers dedicated to battling the legions of the Devil himself. Faced with monstrous apparitions, ancient weaponry, and his own hellishly tedious high school existence, Marlow submits to a demonic deal with the infernal device that enables him to join the battle—if it doesn’t kill him first.''

Part I - New World
Marlow Green is a hellraiser, kicked out of school after school and burning his bridges. His principal, Mr. Caputo, has had enough of Marlow's tomfoolery and expels him along with the intention of pressing criminal charges. Panicking from an asthma attack, Marlow flees the school, consequently thoroughly banned from the grounds. Knowing he can't turn back without being immediately arrested, Marlow ignores the chastising from his best friend, Charlie Alvarez, and plans to drink his sorrows away.

Meanwhile, Pan's story begin's barrelling down the Cross Island Expressway with thirty-two minutes left on her contract. She and another Engineer named Forrest were driving with their mission commander Herc to find some cover under the command of their employer Ostheim. As the Lawyers back in the Pigeon's Nest try to crack her contract, all three hide from the public in an underground parking garage, waiting out the end of their contacts and for the demons to arrive.

Pursuing his plan to day drink, Marlow wanders off further downtown and eventually finds a bodega in order to fulfil his plan and is interrupted by an explosion outside of the store, that ends up destroying pieces of the store's foundation, killing the cashier inside. Marlow grabs the cashier's shotgun and makes a run away from the cops and into an underground parking garage. Inside the parking lot, the world was slowly coming apart as demons began to materialises out of various pieces of the parking lot. Pan and Herc began to fire at the incoming demons as they materialise, Ostheim chiming in their earpieces that within five minutes, the contracts will be broken. Forrest tries to foolishly run from the demons, but is caught and killed by one. Marlow sees Pan getting impaled by one of the demons, and teams up with Herc to help take it down. Marlow then falls into another asthma attack and blacks out, but not before being shocked by Pan resurrect, her contract ended as she fully heals from her wound.

Marlow regains consciousness while strapped down on a hospital bed.Herc offers the choice to Marlow to become an Enginner and work as a soldier, to get anything could he want and suggesting that he'd also see Pan again if he accepts. When Marlow refuses, Herc reminds him that they can't let him go knowing what he saw. Herc leaves and two other Engineers - Hope & Bullwinkle - begin to escort Marlow out through an elevator, letting him live. Inside the elevator Marlow has a scuffle before being sedated by Hope and kick him out delirious and half naked outside to be picked up by the police.

Pan undergoes medical checkups and procedures to ensure her heart fully formed correctly and that the worst of her wounds were treated, while Herc deals with what to do with Marlow. She and Herc talk afterwords about the aftermath left behind, and how Ostheim's new plan depended on using Marlow as bait. Pan then debriefs with Ostheim about the parking lot encounter, and is denied the permission of making a new contract before her next mission. Hours later, she and Herc are decoding Intel sent to them of the possible whereabouts for Patrick, eventually picking up activity of two Engineers down by Marlow's high school, rendezvousing with two more Engineers - Truck & Nightingale - to hunt down one of the Circle's Engineers, Patrick Rebarre.

Marlow comes to in custody, where a cop reveals that Marlow drunkenly confessed to being a part of a planned terrorist attack. Marlow denies it and tries to tell the cops about what he saw in the parking garage with the demons, but is written off as being too drunk when the comotion happened. After being released from the station, Marlow sneaks back off to his school again to seek out Charlie to talk to. After interrupting class, Charlie agrees to talk to Marlow but isn't convinced by Marlow's story of demons and resurrections. Their conversation is cut short by the school going into lockdown (due to Marlow's illegal presence), and Mr. Caputo cornering Marlow in order to kick him out. At the same time, the girl that had previously been scoping him out arrives, greeting Marlow and attempts to read his mind. Charlies attacks her, and is stopped by the teleporting Patrick Rebarre. There, Pan, Herc, Truck, and Nightingale engage in a fight with the two enemy Engineers, breaking off from the fight while holding Brianna (the mind reader and Patrick's sister) hostage as Mammon arrives to the scene. With Marlow shooting Mammon with Pan's crossbow, the Hellraisers buy enough time to flee.

After driving to a safer location down by the coast, Pan and Herc explain to Marlow and Charlie about the Devil's Engine, how it can grant powers in exchange for one's soul, and how demons materialise within the real world to collect the souls after six hundred and sixty-six hours. The conversation is interrupted by Brianna coming back to consciousness in the van. Pan and Herc interrogate the girl at gunpoint, but Brianna is determined to not reveal anything, imploring the rest of the group that they were on the wrong side. However, the interrogation takes a turn for the worst as Pan realises that Brianna's contract was expiring quickly. Still determined not to let any secret slip, Brianna remarks that she'll see them all in Hell, right before the demons materialise and devour her, the very essence of her soul dragged down into the ground.

Faced with the horror of reality, Herc reiterates that Marlow and Charlie have choices to make. He explains that there are two Engines in existence, and that the other one belongs to the side of Mammon and the Circulus Inferni. The Circulus Inferni intend to wreak havoc an open Hell onto to Earth, and that Herc and Pan and the rest of the Engineers want to stop that from happening. With these facts in mind, Charlie immediately accepts the choice to join up, but Marlow objects on the ground that Charlie still has a chance at a promising life, whereas his own has nowhere left to go. Despite Charlie's begging to stay by Marlow's side, Marlow insists on taking the burden alone. Herc injects Charlie a sedative to pass out, and carts Marlow off into an incoming helicopter to be taken to the Engine and become a part of the Hellraisers.