Showing results by author "Rick Jones" in All Categories

In an exclusive restaurant in Budapest, Kimball Hayden confronts his protégé, The Black Monk, for the final time. Two weeks later, in a Texas town, Kimball finds himself embroiled in a dangerous conspiracy after the shocking and violent murder of a news reporter in an adjacent room. When the body is discovered, it becomes the catalyst for an explosive cover-up involving high-end corruption linked to a local mining company.

In the shadows of Tennessee and Los Angeles, a fortune-teller and an evangelist, both claiming to bear the holy wounds of stigmata, are brutally murdered Meanwhile, in a shanty town on the outskirts of Rome, a young gypsy girl emerges bearing the unmistakable wounds of stigmata. When the Vatican takes notice, two members of the esteemed Miracle Commission are dispatched to investigate this extraordinary phenomenon. What they discover sets off a chain of events that will shake the very foundations of faith.

While on a visit to the United States, Pope Pius XIII is kidnapped by a terrorist cell calling itself the Soldiers of Islam. If the United States and its allies do not meet their demands, they will execute the pope. FBI Specialist Shari Cohen is called to duty to track down the terrorist cell responsible, and she soon learns that she is not alone.

Deep behind the Vatican walls, a secret order dispatches a clandestine group of elite commandos known as the Vatican Knights. Their mission: bring the pope back alive.

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.

In Mindanao, Philippines, a terrorist faction holding members of the clergy hostage is summarily liquidated. On the same night in Manila, a separate team of sophisticated thieves with a considerable amount of military training enter a high-tech security facility to steal the coveted Scepter of Light, a staff once used by Saint Peter as he spread the Gospel of Jesus. In Greece, the buyer of the relic learns that the item he purchased for one hundred million in American funds had hit a hurdle, galvanizing his team to aid in the scepter’s recovery in the Philippines.

In Southeast Turkey, where the heads of the four main rivers once met, a magnificent temple created 14,000 years ago is discovered beneath the desert floor. Believed to have been created by lost technology, it is quickly determined by a team of archeologists to be the centerpiece of Eden, a once illustrious civilization and the cradle of mankind. But what if Eden is not the paradise that the texts make it out to be? What if it held dark secrets and unholy terrors instead?

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.

When the pope is gunned down in an assassination attempt, Kimball Hayden and his team of Vatican Knights follow the conspiracy's trail to a cathedral deep inside the Brazilian jungle -- a place of taboo to locals who fear the Huecuvus, the Evil Spirits who protect those within the Ruins of Lost Souls.

Growing up with a sheltering mother and a belligerent father, Kimball Hayden's young life goes from one of innocence to the depths of chaos. When a vicious syndicate of murderers and extortionists begin to run the streets, Kimball soon becomes the focal point of their attention. His family is placed within the crosshairs, friends go missing or are found dead, all messages from the Gangster Prince. But when Kimball's world shatters and he grieves a great loss, the sleeping giant within him awakens.

While vacationing in Paris, Shari Cohen's children are kidnapped by Jadran Božanović, a Croatian kingpin who runs a human-trafficking cartel and is as deadly as the knife he wields. Few dare to challenge him. And even fewer dare to defy him. With time running out and her resources running thin, Shari calls upon the aid of Kimball Hayden and his team Vatican Knights - an elite group of commandos dedicated to protect the sovereignty, interests, and citizenry of the Church - and are once again reunited.

Kimball Hayden is the commander of an elite commando group known as the Vatican Knights, a black-op force that works for the Church to protect its sovereignty, its interests, and the welfare of its citizenry. But Kimball is being stalked by someone from the past, a soldier who is stronger, faster, and far more brutal - an assassin so deadly not even the Vatican Knights can stop him.

In a Galveston, Texas lab, a lethal strain has been stolen by a terrorist faction. In New Mexico, the population of a small town is completely wiped out. In Las Vegas, a vicious underground clan called the Community surfaces at night to prey on the weak. In Paris, two old foes of Kimball Hayden reunite as a kill team to hunt him down. Now considered dead by the Vatican, Kimball Hayden is leading a secretive life on the streets of Las Vegas. But when a parish comes under the threat of a vicious mob, he finds himself thrown back into a world of violence.

Thirty years ago, the world was in the exploratory stages of creating a technology capable of artificial intelligence. Thirty years later, that technology has been perfected. In a lab somewhere in a remote mountain region in Iran, nanoparticles, or micro-bots, have been created to be self-sustaining and self-reproducing, each day evolving and learning from experience. They have been programmed to be the ultimate predator, devouring everything in their path and leaving nothing behind.

In Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1943, a place where ashes rain down on a daily basis to cover the ground with a mantle of gray, a rebel force of Jews band together in a fight for survival. Frederic Becher, an SS guard who falls in love with a Jewish girl, lays the groundwork for the creation of one of the most formidable forces in the world - the juggernaut that would eventually become the Vatican Knights.

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.

When a cardinal is taken captive by an ISIS faction in Damascus, a team of Vatican Knights is dispatched to secure the cardinal's release. But having been ambushed and taken hostage themselves, only one man can bring them out. After Kimball Hayden walked away from the church months before, he is summarily called to duty by Vatican principals to rescue his team. But as Kimball works in the Dark to serve the Light, he discovers the truth behind the ambush and follows the trail of the betraying source directly to the Vatican.

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.

While traveling across the United States during the Papal Symposium, the papal plane, Shepherd One, is commandeered by a terrorist cell calling itself the Muslim Revolutionary Front. On board: a nuclear payload with half the yield that destroyed Hiroshima. Their demand to the US government: assassinate the five leading principals of Mossad.

In Geneva, a highly valued product with the power to cause major destruction is stolen from the CERN. Eighty kilometers from the Austrian border, a young girl becomes the key that controls the will of the man with the power to create and destroy. In the mountainous regions of Switzerland, a hostile force from a pariah regime attempts to extract a scientist from a fast-moving train.

Long before Kimball Hayden became a Vatican Knight, he once served as an elite assassin for the US government. After the ordered assassination on a United States senator by a cabal within the US command, Kimball is set up for failure and is believed dead by the Pentagon brass. But when a leading political principal involved with the senator's murder discovers that Hayden is alive, he's immediately seen as a threat to a certain few on Capitol Hill regarding the sanctioned hit on the senator, and those involved.