Showing results by author "Rick Jones" in All Categories

When the Vatican receives a third necrology report that outlines the impending time and death of the top-tier abductee, the Vatican Knights are forced to operate within a small window of opportunity to locate and extract the hostage before the final obituary comes to completion.

Beneath the city of Venice lies a mysterious warren filled with dark secrets. When Vatican Intelligence discovers that a sacred artifact is about to be claimed by a treasure hunter, the Vatican Knights are sent on a mission to stop the thievery of the church’s most cherished article. But to reach the treasure, they must solve the Templar riddles that are as deadly as they are complexing while opposing an elite group of assassins, the Russian Spetsnaz.

In Los Angeles, the niece of an esteemed cardinal of the Vatican is abducted by the Albanian mob. Kimball Hayden, a man without a country or the support of the church, soon finds himself in the crosshairs of an indigenous black-op unit that is trying to terminate him for secrets that could set off a political firestorm. Lacking in numbers, Kimball must prove himself to the Vatican by overcoming an Albanian team of precision assassins and a sanctioned kill team from the United States government.

Fearless or feral? Liberating or life-threatening? The wild side of life takes many forms. It seeps through the cracks of our world in the form of stray cats, tenacious weeds, oppressive relationships, and haunting memories. These 14 stories by Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers explore the wildness that lives inside all of us—and what happens when we let it out.

When the Vatican Knights are called upon to seek the Holy Grail of the dark messiahs that is the tome of the Baal Manifesto, Kimball Hayden and his team must go against their most lethal enemy that surrounds himself with tier-one mercenaries. With the manifesto having been mythicized as being created by the master of the Unholy Trinity, the Vatican Knights soon find themselves in a battle against a man who might have the power of Satan behind him.

In the Apuseni mountain range in Romania, it’s said that a fabled Keep made from the bones of Vlad the Impaler’s victims stands high enough to touch the sky. At night, things run through the forest claiming those who get too close to the truth. Some people call them demons and trolls known as the Vladorians; others say they don’t exist at all but are the creations of imagination. So, when Kimball Hayden and his team of Vatican Knights are called to investigate, they discover a horror that’s far greater than folklore.

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In a hidden chamber beneath an estate in Zurich, a tomblike vault is discovered containing the Unholy Trinity: Satan, the Antichrist and the False Prophet. In Paris, an elite assassin resurfaces with the intent to raze three major cities through acts of terrorism. In Rome, an old and deadly faction rises once again to remove Kimball Hayden permanently from the ranks of the Vatican Knights.

Political dignitaries, including the president of the Federation, gather for a ceremony onboard Mausoleum 2069. But when a cloud of interstellar dust passes through the galaxy and eclipses Earth, the tenants within the walls of Mausoleum 2069 are reborn and the undead begin to rise. As the struggle between life and death onboard the mausoleum develops, Eriq Wyman, a one-time member of a special-ops team called the Force Elite, is given the task to lead the president to the safety of Earth. But is Earth like Mausoleum 2069 - a landscape of the living dead?

When the Spear of Destiny is stolen by members of the Islamic State with its leader believing that the possessor of the Holy Lance has the ability to command powerful legions, they quickly find themselves in a position of "no escape" inside a towering skyscraper. Now that the power of the Holy Lance is in the hands of Ali Mustafa, he now finds himself with the opportunity to test its value and strength against those who dare oppose him.

In France, a member of a secret guild is killed for the secrets he keeps. In Croatia, a stronghold is breached, and a treasure is stolen. At the Vatican, a corrupt pontiff views Kimball Hayden as a threat to his rule. When a Croatian stronghold is breached and scores are killed, a religious icon is stolen that contains a dark particle that’s powerful enough to either create worlds or destroy them. With a corrupt pontiff who sees Kimball Hayden as a threat to his power, Pope Clement XV mobilizes the Vatican Knight without his team to retrieve the dark particle.

During a visit to the United States, Pope Pius XIV is caught within the crosshairs of a lethal assassin. After scores of people are killed during an event featuring the Pope's address, a conspiracy theory emerges that the killings were conducted by one of the CIA’s own. As the data trickles in, it becomes clear that the assassin is none other than Shari Cohen.

In Egypt, those within the Saint Catherine Monastery are brutally attacked and a secret that has been hidden for more than 3,500 years is stolen. In Zurich, an arms dealer makes an agreement with a band of elite terrorists for one-of-a-kind weapons of mass destruction, for a treasure that was presumed destroyed during the Exodus. When a conversation between two men is covertly videotaped by an operator of the CIA, Vatican Intelligence and the Mossad realize that the partial message received was filled with enigmas.

In central Syria, villages are razed as young men are conscripted to join the ISIS faction. In a Doctors Without Borders camp which is overrun by members of the Islamic State, people are abducted along with a priest Father Savino. He also happens to be the brother of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. From the green zone in Iraq, Shari Cohen, now a CIA consultant and operator, learns that she must appropriate intel from the resurging ISIS force to stop them from striking international targets.

Before Kimball Hayden became a Vatican Knight, he was the commander of the Pieces of Eight, a kill squad that worked as part of a black-arm force of the CIA. He kills with impunity and acts with the cold fortitude of a machine. But when he begins to question the morality of his actions and the motives of his superiors, he is placed within the crosshairs by high-end principals who want to see him dead.

In Antarctica, a massive column made of an unknown composite rises from the ice. It’s a gateway to a world beneath the ice where an ancient city of incredible technology exists. It is also the final arena where three elite combat units seek out the holy grail of global power. With global tensions rising, mankind races to gain the scepter of rule by attaining a weapon of mass destruction so great, it could cause an extinction event.

In the near future when the art of computer graphic imaging has been perfected, there are no longer flesh-and-blood actors, only CGI characters who look as real as their human counterpart. Having been instilled with artificial intelligence, they begin to evolve naturally with human-like facets. When they learn, however, that they’re no longer a box-office draw they once were, they’re termed as obsolete and scheduled for disposal.

Along the chain of Himalayan mountains sits a precipice that serves as a gateway into Mount Everest. Teaming up with Ben Peyton and his crew of elite soldiers who are joined by a Chinese special-ops unit, they quickly discover that the mountain had been hollowed out to contain an entire valley filled with temples and pyramids. As the teams push forward to find the secrets of an alleged Great Army that resides within this cavern, they soon uncover the dangers and pitfalls that lead to a grisly truth.

After a sacred tome written by the hand of Saint Peter is stolen from the Vatican’s Secret Archives, people around the world begin to die at the hands of a madman once the secrets of The Brimstone Diaries are unveiled. In Rome, a terrorist faction has quietly breached the ranks of the Vatican hierarchy. As the conspiracy within the ranks begin to materialize, the greatest threat to the Vatican State is about to commence with Vatican City caught dead-center within the crosshairs of total annihilation.

In Washington, D.C., three priests have been murdered and mutilated with their corpses hanging upside-down in mock crucifixion. The only indicator as to the culprit is a 500-year-old order known as the Nocturnal Saints, an underground faction that had been borne from the Protestant Reformation and acts as judge, jury, and executioner against those deemed to be in contradiction of old-time traditions. So when Special Agent Shari Cohen of the FBI is called to track down this faceless enemy, she’s joined by the Vatican Knights, who have been dispatched by the pontiff to counteract the order.