James Acton 04 - The Templar's Relic (32 page)

“Just sightseeing. Unfortunate the timing, but it had been planned for months.”

Dawson and Niner huddled on either side of Acton as he pretended to show them the photos he had taken.

“What are you two doing here?” he asked in a whisper.

“Just keeping an eye on things.”

“I assume your mission was successful?”

“I like that one!” exclaimed Niner.

“Yes, we were able to preserve the bones and kill the instigators. Once they were dead, the crowd started to settle down, then leave.”

“That’s good. Mario will be relieved to hear that.”

“You haven’t heard?”

Acton felt a tightness in his chest.

“Heart what?”

“He’s in a coma. They’re not sure if he’s going to make it.”

Acton closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh.

“What is it, Dear?” asked Laura as she left a conversation she was having with Reading and Chaney. She smiled in surprise when she saw who Acton was talking to, but kept quiet when they all gave her a look that was unmistakable.

Play along!

“Mario’s in a coma, they’re not sure he’s going to make it,” whispered Acton.

“Hi, nice to meet you,” said Niner, extending his hand.

Laura blindly took it, her eyes clouded with tears.

“N-nice to meet you,” she said.

“We analyzed some footage taken of the shooting of the Pope. What did he say to you?” asked Dawson.

“He asked me to retrieve the skull.”

Dawson frowned. “That’s what I thought he said.” He shook Laura’s hand. “And what do you intend to do?”

“I intend to do just that.”

Whitechapel Road

London, England

Kirby Weeks, no longer fueled with pints of courage, marched toward the scene of his own personal crime, carrying a broom over one shoulder, and several garbage bags tucked into his belt. As he rounded the corner of Whitechapel, he stopped. There were dozens of men, unmistakably Muslim, their thick beards and garb dead giveaways.

Fear gripped him.

His legs wouldn’t move, then he heard a voice echo inside his head, something the Imam had been overheard saying after his impassioned speech.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Armageddon was merely a metaphor for a struggle within men, rather than between men?

He took a deep breath, and stepped forward. As he approached the men cleaning up the mess in front of their mosque, they all stopped to stare at him. He stopped a few feet from them, not sure what to say.

But he knew what to do.

He dropped the brush of his broom onto the ground, and began to push, to sweep away the hate he had felt, the hate he had helped manifest those few short days before.

And tears of shame, and hope, rolled down his cheeks.

The men continued to stare at him for a moment, then resumed their cleanup, with Kirby in their midst.

As one.

THE END

Thank You!

Thank you for choosing and reading my book. If you enjoyed it, I would be grateful if you could write a review and post it on Amazon.com and / or Amazon.co.uk.

Acknowledgements

When I began to write
The Templar’s Relic
, I had a vague idea of where I thought it was going. But, as often happens, it didn’t go anywhere near where I expected, and instead I ended up with the novel you just finished, and still have that other story to write, with even more background built up around these characters I have grown to love.

How did I come up with the idea for an “invasion” of the Vatican? I was out for a drive, trying to think of what to write for my next scene. I had the protesters converging on the Vatican, with the plan being for them to remain outside, but for those who read my books, you know that’s never enough for me.

For some reason the fall of Saigon popped into my head, the dramatic visual of helicopter after helicopter evacuating people, the panic and horror of the situation.

And then it hit me.

“What if the protesters rushed Saint Peter’s Square?”

A smile spread across my face, my foot pressed on the accelerator a little harder, and when I got home, I began to type, and the fall of the Vatican was born.

As usual people need to be thanked. My wife and daughter, my parents, Rick Messina, David Brooklyn and Marcel Primeau (aka Marcello Primo!). And to the over fifty thousand who have helped make a dream come true, my humble gratitude endures.

About the Author

J. Robert Kennedy wrote his first story when he was five.

Everyone in it died.

Things didn't get much better from there. After horrifying his teachers in creative writing classes he took an extended hiatus, returning to writing on a whim, haunted by the image of a woman standing in tall grass, the blades streaming through her fingers. The result was a short story, written in a single evening: Does It Matter?

And then he let it sit.

A couple of years later he let several friends read it and they encouraged him to try and get it published. He submitted it to The Sink and it was immediately accepted. Encouraged, he wrote a second story, Loving the Ingredients, and it too was accepted, along with a reprint of Does It Matter? by The Writers Post Journal.

With several publishing credits under his belt, he was ready for something bigger. A phone conversation with a best friend led to Robert writing his first novel, The Protocol. Lachesis Publishing, the first publisher he sent it to, agreed to publish it and cloud nine got a little more crowded.

This was followed by Depraved Difference, an international bestseller, and the re-release of The Protocol, and its sequels, Brass Monkey and Broken Dove, all international bestsellers. To date, all of Robert’s books have been bestsellers in their categories.

Robert was born in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, and grew up an Air Force brat, living in Halifax and Greenwood, Nova Scotia, Goose Bay, Labrador, Lahr and Baden, Germany, and finally Winnipeg and Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. After a brief stint at the University of Waterloo, like Bill Gates, he went into business for himself and settled in Ottawa, Ontario. Robert has a wife and daughter, and is hard at work on his next novel.

Visit Robert’s website at
www.jrobertkennedy.com
for the latest news and contact information including Twitter and Facebook links.

The Turned

Zander Varga, Vampire Detective

Book #1

Zander has relived his wife’s death at the hands of vampires every day for almost three hundred years, his perfect memory a curse of becoming one of The Turned—infecting him their final heinous act after her murder.

Nineteen year-old Sydney Winter knows Zander’s secret, a secret preserved by the women in her family for four generations. But with her mother in a coma, she’s thrust into the front lines, ahead of her time, to fight side-by-side with Zander.

And she wouldn’t change a thing.

She loves the excitement, she loves the danger.

And she loves Zander.

But it’s a love that will have to go unrequited, because Zander has only one thing on his mind. And it’s been the same thing for over two hundred years.

Revenge.

But today, revenge will have to wait, because Zander Varga, Private Detective, has a new case. A woman’s husband is missing. The police aren’t interested. But Zander is. Something doesn’t smell right, and he’s determined to find out why.

From J. Robert Kennedy, the internationally bestselling author of The Protocol and Depraved Difference, comes his sixth novel, The Turned, a terrifying story that in true Kennedy fashion takes a completely new twist on the origin of vampires, tying it directly to a well-known moment in history. Told from the perspective of Zander Varga and his assistant, Sydney Winter, The Turned is loaded with action, humor, terror and a centuries long love that must eventually be let go.

To sample or purchase
The Turned
, please visit Amazon.com:

Click here
to visit this book's Amazon page now.

For additional options as they become available, visit:

http://www.jrobertkennedy.com

The Protocol

A James Acton Thriller

Book #1

For two thousand years the Triarii have protected us, influencing history from the crusades to the discovery of America. Descendent from the Roman Empire, they pervade every level of society, and are now in a race with our own government to retrieve an ancient artifact thought to have been lost forever.

Caught in the middle is archaeology professor James Acton, relentlessly hunted by the elite Delta Force, under orders to stop at nothing to possess what he has found, and the Triarii, equally determined to prevent the discovery from falling into the wrong hands.

With his students and friends dying around him, Acton flees to find the one person who might be able to help him, but little does he know he may actually be racing directly into the hands of an organization he knows nothing about...

To sample or purchase
The Protocol
, please visit Amazon.com:

Click here
to visit this book's Amazon page now.

For additional options as they become available, visit:

http://www.jrobertkennedy.com

Brass Monkey

A James Acton Thriller

Book #2

A nuclear missile, lost during the Cold War, is now in play—the most public spy swap in history, with a gorgeous agent the center of international attention,- triggers the end-game of a corrupt Soviet Colonel’s twenty five year plan. Pursued across the globe by the Russian authorities, including a brutal Spetsnaz unit, those involved will stop at nothing to deliver their weapon, and ensure their pay day, regardless of the terrifying consequences.