Stone Soldiers 6: Armageddon Z
Page 17
"Is this him? the older man asked. He was very disturbing to look at. Not because of his age, but because of his one stone eye. It was a dull gray, like the stone soldiers, with short scar-like streaks radiating out from the socket. The man's other eye seemed fine, and almost twinkled with excitement.
"Mr. Nakayama, Dr. William King," Kenslir said, half-turning in place to introduce them.
The small woman, who Kenji could now see was a fair-skinned Latina, smiled warmly. "Dr. Maria Guerrero." She extended a hand as well, waiting for Dr. King to finish shaking Kenji's.
"Very exciting to meet you," Dr. King said. "I can't wait to get you back to the lab!"
"Lab?" Kenji suddenly felt very worried.
"To test your abilities," Josie quickly added.
"Great work, saving the world, by the way," Dr. King said, grinning. "You too, Mark."
"Thanks."
"You must be Ms. Winters," Dr. Guerrero said, stepping up and offering her hand to Josie.
Josie shook it, an awkward look on her face. She glanced to the Colonel briefly, as if looking for direction.
"And you must be Colonel Kenslir," Dr. Guerrero said. "I've been going over your file—what they'll let me see anyway. Fascinating. Pretty smart using the petrification curse you carry to stop the creature."
"Yes, ma'am," Kenslir said, his face betraying no emotion.
"Well, shall we go see her?" Dr. King asked.
"This way, Doctors," Kenslir said, motioning toward the petrified mass of the elemental soldiers were methodically using jackhammers on. Already nearly one-third of her stone body had been broken into small, gravel-sized pieces. These would be loaded into the trucks nearby and hauled away—all under the watchful eye of the stone soldiers, who stood guard in a wide perimeter around the site.
Kenji waited until Kenslir and the doctors were out of earshot. "What's with those two?"
"Dr. King is our lead supernatural and paranormal researcher. He got his eye petrified in an accident years ago."
"Oh. And the woman? Guerrero?"
Josie seemed uncomfortable on the subject. "She was our leading petrification researcher, a long time ago."
"Was?"
"She got petrified back in 1962."
Kenji let out a whistle. "Wow. She looks good for her age."
"We just unpetrified her last month."
"Oh... you can do that?"
"Sometimes."
Kenji watched as the Colonel led the duo up to the stone form of the elemental. He could tell Kenslir was careful not to touch the creature's petrified body. Now that his nullification ability had been explained to Kenji that made sense. His touch could restore the elemental, just as his innate resistance kept him from turning to stone.
"Was it just me," Kenji asked, "or was the Colonel acting a little weird around Dr. Guerrero?"
"She's an amnesiac," Josie said, watching the trio talking by the dead elemental. She had a worried look on her face. "Being petrified for all those decades caused some kind of trauma. Dr. King isn't certain if she'll ever get her memories back."
"Do they know each other?" Kenji asked. He knew the Colonel was extremely long-lived. The diplomas in his office showed he'd definitely been around in 1962. It didn't seem that strange of a question—not after all the other stuff Kenji had seen the past few months.
Josie turned and gave him an icy glare. "We're not supposed to talk about it."
She turned back to watch her grandfather once more. "She doesn't remember, but Maria was—is—his wife."
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READ THE NOVEL THAT STARTED THE SERIES!
MYTHICAL
Colonel Mark Kenslir is the last of the Cold War supersoldiers, and he’s just come back from the dead. Unable to remember who, or what killed him, the Colonel sets out to regain his memories, aided by two teens that find him lost in the Arizona desert. Returning to a modern civilization he does not remember, the Colonel slowly pieces together his past and vows to complete his last mission — stop a prehistoric, heart-eating shapeshifter rampaging in the southwest.
Available now in print and digital format!
BROTHERS IN STONE
A second prehistoric shapeshifter is loose in the modern world, joining his resurrected brother in ripping out and consuming the hearts of victims to steal their power, their memories and their form. Colonel Mark Kenslir came back from the dead to defeat one shapeshifter. Can he hope to defeat two, or will he need help from an FBI psychic?
Available now in digital and print editions!
BLOOD AND STONE
Dr. Laura Olson dreamt of freedom for over forty years, serving an eternal sentence behind bars, imprisoned because of what she was— a vampire. But when a prehistoric shapeshifter comes to Alcatraz and begins stealing the hearts and powers of the inmates, the undead Doctor gets a chance at freedom. Joining the men and women of Detachment 1039, Dr. Olson sets out for Mexico, to stop the shapeshifter’s reign as the legendary Mayan god, Kukulcan. But can the good doctor help her new team, or will she give in to her blood lust and join the shapeshifter’s new empire?
Available now in digital and print editions!
SHADES OF WAR
Colonel Mark Kenslir has defended America from the supernatural for over fifty years. In that time, he's killed many men. Now one of those vanquished enemies has come back from the grave — and is raising a spectral army from Civil war battlefields for revenge.
Kenslir must find a way to stop an army that is already dead, before they reach Washington and plunge the country into chaos. Aided by his cryokinetic granddaughter, an amorous vampire M.D. and his stone soldiers, can the Colonel stop the forces of darkness or will Washington fall to the shades of gray?
Available now in digital and print format!
BLACK KNIGHT DOWN
*Orbiting the earth for millennia, a strange, black construct hangs silently in space, its purpose and creators unknown. Governments of the world have feared the implications of the construct and have kept its existence a secret.
When the artificial satellite, code-named Black Knight, comes crashing to down to Earth, the Stone Soldiers must spring into action to keep those responsible from unleashing the horrors it contains.
Before the shapeshifters, the Stone Soldiers kept America safe from the supernatural…
Three stories of supersoldiers battling the supernatural, now available exclusively on Kindle!
Starting in 1962, with the accidental creation of the first man of stone in a secret government lab, then jumping ahead to 2008 and a Fire Elemental killing American soldiers in Afghanistan, this trilogy of short stories climaxes with a supernatural plague in Africa that only the Stone Soldiers can resist.