Characters in the Gary Booker Novel Series by VS Campbell (Part-1)
As in any novel series that offers a continuous, chronological group of stories, The Gary Booker Novel Series has more than one hundred characters that weave in and out of the different books and spin-offs.
This list, organized by the books in which they were introduced, will help you understand the background and history of the characters. I hope you enjoy the adventure!
Gary Booker Novel Series on Spotify Podcasts & Shows. https://open.spotify.com/show/47bqJVxoL6mKEZGyyESNSW?si=0770b7dffc6a46f2
Characters from Operation Austin, the first book in the Gary Booker Novel Series
Gary Patrick Booker
Born September 24, 1985 (34 years old at the time of the first book, July 2019). His mother’s name is Kim; she is sixty years old and lives in the Trilogy Community on Redmond Ridge, Washington. His father died several years earlier after struggling with Parkinson’s from exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. He is very close to his mom and was also with his dad. She is one of the main reasons he still has a residence in Washington State, since his primary home is on the Island of St. Kitts.
He graduated from the University of Washington with a master’s in computer science and a BA in Construction Management.
After graduating from the UW, Gary took a job as a project engineer with a large defense technology company. Eighteen months into his first project, the project manager was fired for having issues with the schedule and quality control. Gary knew the most about the project’s current situation, so after an in-depth interview, their boss handed the management position to him. The project finished on time and met the budget. The industry took notice.
Following that, he was hired as a consultant to solve problems on a Defense Department project, and his reputation grew as someone who had excellent planning skills and understood project management of technology-related projects. This led him to be hired by a cybersecurity/anti-virus company, where he became a TOR/Dark Web expert, falling in love with the world of cyber investigation.
That is how Gary met John, who was working for the internet security company. John had been hired to do some personal security by the CEO. The two men liked each other, and right after that, John ended up on a job that needed some tech work, so he called Gary.
John had started a firm doing security, both personal and corporate, with an emphasis on forced collections and hostage extractions. Having the right intel going into a mission can make all of the difference in the success of an operation, and Gary was the best in the business at penetrating computer systems and getting information out. This allowed John and the team to have a distinct advantage, because they were always in possession of information that gave them control of the location and their enemies. They were the apex predators, and their prey was usually unaware that they were being pursued.
Gary also proved to be particularly good at strategic planning, and the team allowed him to take over that function, organizing the mission details and creating a framework of a plan that he would then present to the team in a ‘team consulting’ process. Each member of the team was an elite professional, selected by Gary, John, and Layla, to fill a specific role. John, Gary, and Layla had been together ever since, occasionally doing projects independently of each other but increasingly working as a team.
For Gary, there was something addictive about the chase, like a lion stalking a gazelle. Creeping so slowly that he could barely be seen moving, crouching where the prey couldn’t see him, with a rush, he pounced. It was usually over before his victim knew he was there.
That is what they did, John and he. They crept up on bad people, especially the ones that the legal system either couldn’t or wouldn’t touch. Then they pounced, destroying their target and taking everything that belonged to the criminal. When they were done destroying their prey, they left no evidence of their involvement. After paying themselves very well, they put the rest of the money they plundered into a fund to help the victims they rescued.
Generally, Gary did the stalking; John and the team did the pouncing, but lately, Gary has been participating more in the fieldwork. He felt it helped him plan missions better if he understood what they experienced, and he also needed to be there at the scene to secure the computers they found. This allowed him to extract information and to plunder the criminals.
At first, it was like a game for him. John and Layla had years of experience in the dirty work of the industry. They understood that torture and death were part of what they did to fight ruthless and violent opponents. To Gary, that was academic until they lost their first team member in battle. That, and another traumatic event experienced in the months before Operation Austin, opened up a dark side of his persona, one that Paige labeled El que trae Veneno: The one who brings venom, or El Veneno for short.