New York City, often called simply New York or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States, and one of the world's most populous megacities.
Fictional History[]
Contest[]
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Rewind / The Fate of Flight 700[]
During the cover-up of an incident in which a civilian airliner was deliberately shot down, a false recording was created to made it seem as though the pilot had gotten in contact with New York's Air Traffic Control to report their apparent catastrophic engine-failure before crashing.
Temple[]
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Altitude Rush[]
After "Robin Hood" stole a classified document from a Federal Reserve office in the Empire State Building, he and his partner "Little John" made their escape across the top of a number of New York buildings. Their path fleeing from the Navy SEALs trying to take them down forced them to alter their path to take them to Grand Central, from where they made their way to a crane on an adjacent construction site, and swung over to the Chrysler Building. From there, Robin Hood and Little John used stunt parachutes to quickly traverse the gap between the Chrysler Building to the UN Building three blocks away, where their SEAL pursuers could not follow.
The Rock Princess and the Thriller Writer[]
When their respective book and album promoting tours happened to convene in New York, it provided an opportunity for the "thriller writer" and "rock princess" to meet in their hotel's restaurant.
Scarecrow Series[]
Area 7[]
At an unknown time either before or after the President was inaugurated, Charles "Caesar" Russell arranged for fifteen Type-240 warheads to be placed at several major civilian airports in major cities in America's northern states. Three of these were situated at New York City's major airports; John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International and La Guardia Airport. The warheads were programmed to detonate should a satellite receiving a signal from a device on the President's heart stop transmitting.
During the broadcast to issue his challenge to the President, Caesar revealed the locations of the warheads to the President, including the three around New York, and how his own beating heart would keep them from detonating.
Ultimately, Caesar's coup failed, and once the satellite transmitting to the warheads was destroyed, the warheads were disarmed by military forces and relocated.
Scarecrow[]
Shortly before mid-2003, the "billionaire's club" Majestic-12 decided to enhance their overall fortunes, and began planning to initiate a new Cold War, which their individuals businesses would benefit from and improve their wealth. Deciding to utilise a pair of top secret American projects known as Kormoran and Chameleon, which involved disguised battle tankers and clone missiles respectively, M-12 could make several western countries believe they had been hit by terrorist missiles.
As M-12's plan began to take shape, the Kormoran ship MV Ambrose, stationed in New York Bay, was surreptitiously loaded with Chameleon clones of Iran's Shahab-5, which would launch missiles targeting Washington, D.C. and New York itself. Seeking aide in defending the Kormoran ships if they came under attack before the Chameleon missiles could be launched, Jonathan Killian made a deal with five African nations, who would deploy troops onto each ship in order to defend them. As a result, troops from either Chad, Libya or Angola were stationed onboard the Ambrose as soon as Majestic-12 took control of the ship.
Though the Mossad agent Benjamin Rosenthal was killed before he could share what he knew of M-12's plan with Shane Schofield's allies, Book II was able to collect several of his notes, and he and Scott Moseley discovered what M-12 had planned for the New York-stationed Kormoran vessel.
Since Schofield was the only one who could disarm the CincLock-VII security system, Book II headed to New York to meet with a prepared team of Marines to infiltrate the Ambrose so that they could provide a satellite uplink for Schofield to disarm them. Despite the resistance from the African troops, the Marines were able to reach the missile control panel, allowing Book II to provide Schofield with a satellite uplink that enabled the Marine to abort the launch and save New York.
Hover Car Racer[]
During the growth of the hover car industry, and the accompanying racing sports, the professional league established the Masters Series of races. Chief among them were the four "Grand Slam" races, which included the New York Masters. Over several years, the New York Masters races were successful in drawing race fans to New York City, with the tourism providing a boost to the local economy.
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Jack West Jr Series[]
Jack West Jr and the Hero's Helmet[]
In 1994, Jack West Jr, who theorised that the Temple of Dendur contained the Knife of Osiris, received permission alongside Max Epper to examine the Temple from the Metropolitan Museum of Art with non-invasive equipment to confirm their theory.
On Christmas Eve, a pair of the museum's security guards were assigned to keep and eye on Jack and Epper as the museum's closing time approached, and to watch as they prepared a ground penetrating radar to confirm Jack's theory. Just as Jack confirmed that the Knife was within one of the bricks, the museum's fire alarm forced an evacuation. However, this was a diversion to allow a squad of fake firemen to move into the museum and smash the brick of the Temple containing the Knife, and proceeded to abscond with it.
After hearing a nearby boy note that their firetruck did not match the actual type of the real number 17 firetruck, Jack became suspicious and went after them, managing to climb onto the firetruck's side-ladder as they started speeding through New York's streets. But upon the firemen's arrival at St Patrick's Cathedral, they were killed by an assassin in a trench coat, and Jack was unable to do anything but watch as the assassin took off with the Knife.
The Three Secret Cities[]
In the late 20th century, on the behalf of the King of Underworld, Anthony "Hades" DeSaxe or his father, Saxony Tower was built in New York's Tribeca neighbourhood, the top two floors of which were made to serve as the former's penthouse for his stays in the city. Over the years, Hades stored the many artifacts he acquired in a highly secure vault, such as the tablet of the Altar of the Cosmos and the Helmet of Hades. When the neighbouring Tribeca One building was in the middle of its development, Hades used his influence to have the building's planned 70-story height changed since it would restrict the view from his Saxony Tower apartment.
A few days after the conclusion of the Great Games of the Hydra, Hades's butler informed his master that the Four Legendary Kingdoms had decided to disavow Hades and liquidate his assets, and that anything he wanted from his penthouse vault he would need to collect himself. As he had joined forces with Jack West Jr's team, Hades requested they join him in heading to New York to obtain both the Helmet and the Altar tablet due to their importance to the Trial of the Cities.
Upon arriving at Saxony Tower and being met by Geoffrey, Hades led the group to the vault, where he showed them the Helmet and Altar tablet. Geoffrey received word that someone had entered the building and were on their way up to the penthouse in Anthony's private elevator. As the intruders killed Hades's private staff, the group hid in the panic room, from which they watched on the security feeds as Orlando Compton-Jones, Ricardo Mendoza and Sunil Malik entered the vault to claim the two artifacts.
Orlando and his entourage proceeded to leave Saxony Tower when they heard that more enemies were incoming, and as Hades and the others left the panic room and headed for the elevator, they were confronted by Yago DeSaxe and his men, come to capture and imprison Hades and Jack at the Royal Prison of Erebus. The confrontation was interrupted as a pair of V-22 Ospreys under the control of the Knights of the Golden Eight entered a holding position outside the penthouse.
After the Knights forced Yago to leave with only Hades, one of the aircraft opened fire on the building, causing much damage to the Saxony Tower penthouse and killing Geoffrey, while the other V-22 offloaded its Knights to storm the apartment. As they worked to survive the Knights' assault, Jack, Lily West and Mae Merriweather were forced to jump onto the arm of a nearby crane of the One Tribeca building that Zoe Kissane had positioned for them to escape. The tower's supports was then struck by the Ospreys' fire, sending the building tumbling into the Hudson River. However, Jack and the team had been prepared with breathing equipment, and escaped underwater to the Holland Tunnel where Alby Calvin waited for them. Unable to confirm Jack's death and with several onlookers and authorities gathering at the scene, the Knights of the Golden Eight departed as well.
The incident in New York was soon seen as one of many highly unusual incidents by various new outlets over the next week.
The Two Lost Mountains[]
As Hardin "Sphinx" Lancaster prepared to head into the Supreme Labyrinth, he sent his forces to many of the world's major cities, including New York, and had a Siren bell rung over them, sending the citizens in those cities who heard the bells' tone into a coma-like state, with Sphinx intending to wake the people as his slaves once had had prevented the Omega Event. This incident in New York and other sleep-struck cities caused the world to cower in fear of what would happen next.
The One Impossible Labyrinth[]
After Iolanthe Compton-Jones and Nobody discovered that the Orphean bell was hidden within one of the Cleopatra's Needles, the former determined that it was the obelisk in New York's Central Park that they needed to get to. Once they'd landed at JFK Airport, they rushed to Central Park and used their chopper to topple the obelisk over. Moments after Iolanthe found the blue bell within the Needle, Chloe Carnarvon and a pair of choppers arrived, who started pursuing her and Nobody over the streets of New York.
During their flight, Iolanthe started ringing the Orphean bell, which began awakening the sleep-struck citizens below. Being more familiar with the Manhattan streets, Nobody led their pursuers towards the Brooklyn Bridge, avoiding colliding with the bridge whereas Chloe's choppers failed to stop and smashed into it. With the blue bell secured, Iolanthe and Nobody used it to awaken the remainder of the sleepers in New York before proceeding on to Washington.
Some time after the Omega Event was averted and Sphinx and his forces defeated, Jack and his team were asked to attend a hearing in the Security Council chamber at the United Nations Building in New York in order to discuss the recent global events.
The Secret Runners of New York[]
At an unknown time in the past, a temporal portal mechanism was built within a tunnel located beneath what would later become New York's Central Park. Around a few centuries before the present day, the time portals and the gems that activated them had come to be used by the Native Americans living in the area. Though the exact circumstances are unclear, it appears that settlers from the Mayflower managed to steal some of the gems used in the time portal mechanism, and in an attempt to get them back, the Natives Americans offered the settlers the land that would become Manhattan Island.
However, two of the amber-coloured gems were kept by one of the settlers' families, which later uncovered the time portal mechanism beneath Central Park, and passed the gems down along their familial line as they used it, unaware of its true properties. As the rest of New York was being constructed around it, properties were built above the entrance and exit shafts at both ends of the tunnel and privatised to keep the public and the curious out.
In March 2018, around a week before a cosmic gamma cloud was due to pass through the Earth, social upheaval and anarchic acts of violence against the wealthy and powerful started taking the world by storm as humanity panicked. Several such events broke out in New York, including a notable siege on the San Remo that was set off when radio personality Manny Wannemaker aggravated what he referred to as "free-loading welfare losers".
Ultimately, when the gamma cloud arrived and began enveloping the Earth, New York - like all major cities around the globe - was affected, though New York was among the last cities on Earth to be afflicted. As s the electrical signals in the brains of almost every living thing were disrupted, millions of people in New York died instantly, and the tiny fraction of people who survived due to being unaffected by the cloud were left to roam the city.
Over the next 20 years, without enough humans to maintain it, New York City fell into disrepair, with several buildings starting to collapse due to tunnels flooding, lack of maintenance, and exposure to the elements. Most of the survivors who remained in New York in this period were psychotically-inclined people with penchants for violence, who lived in the broken remains of the city's buildings.
Unbeknownst to the world, a secretive group of teens called the Secret Runners of New York who had had access to the ancient time-folding portal, which they had been unwittingly using to travel to the era after the gamma cloud event. Bo Bradford once managed to get a brief glimpse of the world above the tunnel, spying the wrecked city of New York and theorising that it was a future or alternate version of the city. Though Bo did not attempt further exploration, and without the male members of the Secret Runners knowing, the girls later managed to get to the top of the well on their own and do some minor exploring of the immediate Central Park area, learning that it was the future after the gamma cloud event. Led by Misty Collins, the girls started using the portal to dispose of people who had slighted them, abandoning them in the ruined New York and leaving them to be killed by the "crazies".
A few weeks before the gamma cloud, Bo and Skye Rogers had decided to explore beyond the tunnel and learned of the impending doom, prompting them to gather the Secret Runners to explore the future New York further. Thus the Runners traveled to the derelict city a few times as they sought to uncover their fates following the cloud, lamenting the damage that the city was suffering. A few members of the group would ultimately end up perishing in this dystopian New York, largely caused by Skye's discovery of Misty and the girls' spiteful actions, with Bo, Verity Keeley and Misty being killed, and thus vanishing from the New York of 2018.
Interceptor[]
During the planning stage to destroy the United States, Russian terrorists chose New York as one of their targets. Once Alexander Kessel and his mercenaries had taken control of the SBX-1 interceptor platform in the Pacific Ocean, they hacked the Emergency Broadcast System and began televising events across America, including New York, and announcing that the city was one of their 16 targets.
After Captain JJ Collins caused an initial setback in Kessel's plan, people began gathering in Times Square to watch more of the broadcast until Collins ultimately foiled Kessel and destroyed the terrorist missiles, saving New York from annihilation and prompting a cheer from the watching New Yorkers.
Cobalt Blue[]
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Mr Einstein's Secretary[]
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Notable Locations[]
New York Public Library[]
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During the preparation for the seventh Presidian, a fight-to-the-death contest between the intelligent races of the universe, the Guides race chose New York's Public Library to serve as the event's labyrinth in which the participants would fight. After cheating perpetrated by Bellos was uncovered by the Presidian's officials and the event cancelled, explosives within the contestants' wristbands detonated and completely destroyed the already-burning Public Library.
New York University[]
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Saxony Tower[]
A skyscraper in New York's Tribecca district, which is owned by the King of Underworld Anthony "Hades" DeSaxe, and houses his private penthouse for stays in the United States.
San Remo[]
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The Monmouth School[]
A prestigious institute which primarily teachers the teenaged children of New York's high society.
Central Park[]
Metropolitan Museum of Art[]
A public institution which is dedicated to the preservation and display of human history, art and culture.
Portal Tunnel[]
A secret tunnel located beneath Central Park, which contains a pair of ancient mechanisms which can be used to allow travel from the present day to the future and back.
Times Square[]
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Events[]
Presidian[]
A contest between the intelligent races of the universe in which the representing participants fight to the death. The seventh Presidian took place in New York's public library in secret, with Stephen Swain being selected to participate as humanity's representative. Due to cheating perpetrated by Bellos, Swain was briefly ejected from the Library and forced to find a way back inside. Meanwhile, electrical shorts caused by the electrification to seal the Library caught the attention of the NSA's Sigma Division, and brought the secretive agency to New York in the hope of capturing alien specimens.
Once Bellos's cheating was uncovered by the Presidian's officials and the event cancelled, the explosives within the contestants' wristbands detonated with the removal of the electrified field, resulting in New York's already-burning Public Library being destroyed.
New York Masters Hover Car Races[]
A set of professional-league hover car races that take place exclusively in and around the outskirts of New York City. The New York Masters are the fourth of the Grand Slam Races. The four main races take place during the city's "race week", and are preceded by a "show day" race called the Challenger, and a parade day to show off the participating racers, which takes place across several of New York's prominent streets such as Fifth Avenue.
Challenger Race[]
A "show day" race, which was established to afford up-and-coming racers the opportunity to make a name for themselves in the professional racing league, and the winner of the race would be granted a slot in the Masters races.
Liberty Supersprint[]
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Manhattan Gate Race[]
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The Pursuit[]
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The Quest[]
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Trivia[]
- The City of New York has the highest number of appearances and mentions of any real-world cities across all of Matthew Reilly's novels to date.
- New York City traces its origins to a trading post founded by colonists from the Dutch Republic in 1624 on Lower Manhattan; the post was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, the Duke of York.
- The city is the center of the New York metropolitan area, and is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass.
- New York City has been described as the cultural, financial, and media capital of the world, significantly influencing commerce, entertainment, research, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, fashion, and sports.