Showing results by author "Rick Jones" in All Categories

In 1307, as the flames of King Philip IV’s purge consume the Knights Templar, a lone knight flees with a secret that could upend Christendom—a set of scrolls said to bear the words of the Apostles themselves, guided by Mary Magdalene after the death of Jesus. Hidden for centuries, these writings challenge the very foundation of the Church’s authority.

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.

As the Vatican mourns the loss of Kimball Hayden, Isaiah, branded as the new Master Commander, is tasked with confronting the Black Monk, who has utilized AI technology to spread disinformation across Europe, but with an even greater focus on the Vatican to undermine the pope’s authority. When Europe begins to erupt into chaos and violent protests, the pontiff has also been targeted by this campaign with lies and mistruths, with public opinion turning against him.

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.

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.

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 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 Paris, a delegate from Hezbollah’s March 8 Alliance is gunned down as he arrives at a summit to broker peace, with all blame placed on Israel. As the world teeters on the edge of war, an unseen force moves in the shadows—a Hamas cell with plans to turn a diplomatic crisis into an all-out catastrophe. When the Vatican Knights uncover a plot that threatens not just the summit but the very stability of the region, one man is sent into the depths of a conflict where alliances blur and enemies strike from the dark.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Nearly 65 million years ago an asteroid collided with the Yucatan Peninsula in the fifth and final extinction event that nearly destroyed all life on Earth. But when a recent earthquake exposes something unusual 2,000 feet beneath the Yucatan Peninsula, cryptanalysts Alyssa Moore and John Savage are called in to investigate this peculiar structure that bears uncanny resemblances to writings discovered in Eden.

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.

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.