“Tell-tell Mother that I…”
His voice faded, replaced with nothing more than a long, shallow sigh, the spark of life that once dominated his deep blue eyes gone.
Cylon roared at the heavens above, damning the gods who would let this happen, damning Apollo, damning Athena, and damning the Oracle herself, as he clasped his son’s tiny lifeless body against his own.
A crowd had gathered to watch the misery unfolding, the light of day now filling the streets with long shadows, his name whispered as he was recognized.
There would be no hiding now.
There would be no revenge on Megacles.
There would be no more nights with his wife.
He was already dead inside, cursed by the gods who had lead him down this path of tragedy.
He rose, bending over to pick up his son, when he noticed his tiny hand was tightly clasped, as if gripping something. He opened his son’s hand, his heart hammering with the memory of doing the same to his friend’s only minutes ago.
And screamed in rage and horror at the sight of the amulet he had tossed into the street.
He was the architect of his own son’s demise, the poor foolish boy rushing into the street to grab that which his father had discarded, probably in the hopes of returning it to him one day, the proud son saving his father from a perhaps foolhardy emotional decision.
“Oh, you beautiful, brave child.” His shoulders shook with the knowledge that his failure had taken yet another life. He stared at the amulet, truly a curse on the Cylon family, and rose, lifting his son in his arms, his vision blurred with burning tears.
“I’m so sorry, sir, I didn’t see him.”
Cylon ignored the man who had driven the cart, instead beginning to walk toward the necropolis where his friends lay interred. “Tell Megacles that I, Cylon, await him.” He paused, spotting a large jar lying on the ground beside the overturned cart. “Give me that.”
The man nodded, grabbing it, and placing it on the chest of Cylon’s only child. Nothing was said. There was nothing to say. It had been an accident, arranged by the gods. No one was to blame except Cylon himself, for he had failed, and cursed his family and anyone associated with him, forever.
He entered the necropolis and placed his son’s body at the front of the line of his fallen friends along with the jar. He stared at the body of his friend, Basileios, at the far end, then made a decision. With his sword, he broke the chain binding his friend to the others, then carried his lifeless corpse to the front of the line, placing him beside his son. He arranged them both in as peaceful a pose as he could, then removed the lid from the large jar, dropping the amulet inside, then pressing the cover back in place. He retrieved a wax candle from the wall, lighting it with the torch he had left behind earlier, then used the wax to seal the lid in place, as he heard a growing crowd gather outside.
They’ll be here soon.
He sat between his son and best friend with the vase, or what he now was certain was an urn, nestled in his lap. He picked up a small stone and began to write on the outside of the jar, a warning to all who might be tempted to retrieve that which it contained.
Cursed be all who possess that which this contains, so sayeth Pythia, Oracle of Apollo.
He stared at what he had written, then decided additional gravitas was required, etching one last word below his warning.
Cylon.
He placed the urn between two of the three most important people in his life, then rose, drawing his sword as the first of his challengers arrived, praying one of them would be Megacles.
He took one last look at his friend, then his son, and smiled.
“I’ll be with you soon.”
THE END
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JAMES ACTON RETURNS in the international bestseller
The Viking Deception!
CENTURIES AGO, THE VIKINGS AND THE ISLAMIC CALIPHATE NEARLY WENT TO WAR. AND TODAY, MORE INNOCENT BLOOD WILL SPILL...
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is dedicated to Malcolm Stone. Malcolm was a fan for some time, and reached out to me December 24th, 2014, in response to my annual Christmas email. Over the years, he responded to most of my newsletter emails, and quite quickly we began exchanging emails about many things beyond just the books. I’ve received emails from his family, and have found them all to have terrific senses of humor, and all to have been devoted to Malcolm.
While writing my last book, I sent an email to a small group of proofreaders, one of whom was Malcolm. He never opened it. I knew he had been ill for some time, and grew concerned. I woke up on the morning of May 20, 2018, and checked once again, deciding that I’d send him an email just to make sure he was okay.
This led to the discovery of a new email that had arrived from his family, telling me of his death the night before.
I found this quite devastating, but was also honored that his family had thought to contact me individually, within hours of his death, to let me know what had happened. I considered Malcolm a friend, though we had never met or even spoken, and I will miss him very much.
I hope he would have loved what you just read, and still thought I “ruled the genre.”
I often get asked where I get my ideas from, and this one might be less obvious than you think. I’ve always been a huge Battlestar Galactica fan. As a kid, when we were stationed in Europe, my grandparents would tape it on VHS (remember that?) and send me episodes. I was immediately hooked. When the reboot came out, I was hooked all over again. I loved the re-imagining, and have watched it countless times.
Those who watched the original series would remember the heavy Ancient Greek influence. Apollo, Athena, the Viper pilot helmets that looked like they were straight out of Ancient Greece. Clearly, the creator Glen A. Larson had been influenced by this, and the concept suggested a relationship between Ancient Earth and the colonies.
I understood all of this, and enjoyed that concept, but never realized that one of the most important aspects of the show came from history as well.
A few months ago, I was in my car, listening to the radio, and they were talking about an archaeological find in Athens—an ancient necropolis. I had heard of this a couple of years ago, but this time they were talking about 80 skeletons they had discovered, many shackled, yet still buried with some semblance of honor.
It intrigued me.
But what really caught my attention was the theory as to who these people could be.
The followers of Cylon.
My jaw dropped, I stared at the radio, and I think I said something like, “Are you f’n kidding me?” Needless to say, I was shocked at this revelation. I had always assumed the term Cylon was something made up by Larson for the TV series. I had figured it was short for Cybernetic “something,” but to discover that Cylon was actually a figure from history had me racing home and reading everything I could find.
And a book idea was born.
As usual, there are people to thank. My dad for all the research, Brent Richards for some weapons info, and, as usual, my wife, daughter, and mother, as well as the proofing and launch teams.
As well, I’d like to thank the winners of some contests on my Facebook page, Carolanne Burnett who supplied the name of Leather’s new love interest, and Angela Lee who chose the pub Reading and his son were enjoying beers at. To participate in these contests, please follow me on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/jrobertkennedy.
To those who have not already done so, please visit my website at www.jrobertkennedy.com then sign up for the Insider’s Club to be notified of new book releases. Your email address will never be shared or sold, and you’ll only receive the occasional email from me, as I don’t h
ave time to spam you!
Thank you once again for reading.
JAMES ACTON IS BACK!
James Acton returns in the international bestseller The Viking Deception, now available everywhere!
CENTURIES AGO, THE VIKINGS AND THE ISLAMIC CALIPHATE NEARLY WENT TO WAR.
AND TODAY, MORE INNOCENT BLOOD WILL SPILL.
In 989 AD, when informed of her impending arranged marriage, Fatima takes drastic action with her forbidden lover, Viking Prince Magnus, actions that not only have immediate consequences for her entire family, but reverberate a millennium later.
When Archaeology Professor James Acton receives an invitation from a friend to visit a new dig site where an unusual artifact has been discovered linking the Vikings to the Islamic Caliphate, he and his wife eagerly accept.
But upon arriving in Stockholm, Sweden, their friend is nowhere to be found, last seen entering the Saudi embassy and not heard from since. Before they can notify the authorities, Acton receives a disturbing phone call, and is forced into action to save his friend.
Becoming a criminal in the process.
Award winning and USA Today bestselling author J. Robert Kennedy once again twists history and today’s headlines to his own ends, delivering an action-packed thriller sure to leave you burning through the pages. If you enjoy fast-paced adventures in the style of Dan Brown, Clive Cussler, and James Rollins, then you’ll love this thrilling tale of archaeological intrigue.
Get The Viking Deception today, and discover the forgotten history that linked two families separated by distance, culture, and religion, and the tragic consequences that resulted then, and now…
To sample or purchase, please visit Kobo, or click here for additional purchase options.
READ A SAMPLE FROM THE VIKING DECEPTION ON THE NEXT PAGE!
Sample from Acton #23: The Viking Deception
Stockholm University
Stockholm, Sweden
One day from now
Elsa Andersson scratched the back of her neck, all four fingers raking against the skin as she wondered what was going on. The text message she received had been from Professor Karlsson’s phone. She had double-checked the number, something that had proven entirely unnecessary as he was in her contacts list, with more messages exchanged than with anyone else including her boyfriend.
She frowned at the thought of him.
There’s no future there.
She was tired of wasting her time with boys. She wanted a man. Professor Karlsson was definitely a man, and if he wasn’t married, and perhaps twenty years younger, she’d consider making a play for him.
She loved brilliant minds.
Though sleeping with a man old enough to be her grandfather wasn’t exactly appealing to her.
And neither was the infantile moron she now bedded.
She sighed as the elevators opened, her scratch turning into a massage, though a rather ineffectual one. She was worried about the professor. She hadn’t reached him all day, thus his message had been a tremendous relief. He had somehow guessed where she was, which now that she thought of it, was a bit of a leap.
Why would he think I’d be at the university at this hour?
The only reason she was here was that he hadn’t shown up all day, and the remains delivered earlier had to be processed. Normally, they would have worked on it together at a more reasonable hour, but with his lack of communication all day, she had decided action had to be taken, regardless of the consequences.
Yet he had known she was here. That much was certain from his message.
Meet me in the lobby right away.
But he wasn’t there. A quick check with security confirmed he hadn’t been and left. He had never been.
Could he have been referring to a different lobby?
Her eyebrows rose at the thought as she slowly made her way to the lab at the end of the hallway. It was a possibility, though she couldn’t fathom what lobby he might have been referring to, nor why he would think she was somewhere that had one.
None of it made sense, and it had her even more concerned than she already had been. Calls and messages had gone unanswered all day, even to his home, though if he wasn’t there, that wasn’t unusual. Mrs. Karlsson never answered when she called for some reason. He was to have met with an old friend of his, Professor James Acton, an archaeology professor from the United States, along with the man’s wife, Laura Palmer, also a professor of archaeology.
If that’s not a recipe for boredom, I don’t know what is.
The two professors were to meet with Karlsson this morning then tour the dig site, but they never showed. None of them did, and all day she had worked under the hypothesis they had found something better to do. After all, they were all academics, and that type was notorious for losing track of time when a good discussion was underway.
She frowned at the thought.
You’re an academic.
She paused, staring into nothing.
Am I going to become like them?
She shuddered at the thought, resuming her tired trek to the lab. She hoped she would remain the vital, vivacious, exciting person she now was, then again, at this moment, she could think of nothing more exciting than the remains she was now about to process.
She reached the door and fished under her hoodie for her pass, her mind returning to the task at hand, Professor Karlsson’s idiosyncrasies put on hold.
He can text me again if he actually shows up.
She swiped her pass then entered her personal code for the lab, something she still remembered to this day being issued. It had been one of the prouder moments of her life. The trust the professor had shown in her had been an emotional revelation. She was one of the few he allowed into his lab unaccompanied. In fact, there were less than a handful of students with the access she had.
The door clicked, the sound always sending goosebumps through her body, and she pushed against the door, a slight hiss sounding, the room pressurized to keep foreign contaminants out should there be something truly delicate inside. The door swung open and she gasped at the sight that greeted her.
“What’s going on here?”
A man was standing over the body of another, staring at her, shocked at having been caught. She froze, the door swinging shut behind her as her jaw dropped with the recognition of who the murderer standing before her was.
It was the same man whom she had Googled just yesterday.
“Professor Acton?” She stared at the body, recognizing one of the security guards. “Oh my God! Is he dead?”
Something behind her caused her to flinch and as she turned, she caught a glimpse of a woman she recognized as Professor Acton’s wife. She pressed something into her back.
“Move and you die.”
Get your copy today to find out what happens next, and see how James and Laura become criminals in this action packed adventure!
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NEED SOME HISTORICAL ACTION?
Check out this bestselling historical thriller, the first of a new series!
In an age before detectives, one Templar Knight is called upon to deliver justice.
When wounded Templar Knight Sir Marcus de Rancourt receives word that his sister is dying, he returns to a home he hasn’t seen in twenty years, only to find his sister dead, and her children orphaned. Sir Marcus decides to take on the greatest challenge of his life and remain behind to raise the children, his loyal sergeant and squires insisting on joining him to work the land at his side.
And it all starts with a simple murder, witnessed by a little boy, who swears Templars killed his parents.
Now it is up to Sir Marcus and his men to determine who committed the gruesome murders, and clear the good name of the Templars, before the very balance of power in the region shifts in favor of someone who should never possess it.
From USA Today bestselling author J. Robert Kennedy, comes the first in a new serie
s, The Templar Detective, packed with pulse-pounding action, intrigue, and humor, guaranteed to keep thriller fans awake into the late hours.
Get your copy today, and be among the first to meet a new band of war-weary heroes, struggling to reintegrate into society, who are called upon once again to serve their Order, their Church, and their God.
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DISCOVER WHERE THE ACTION BEGINS...
Love historical action? Then check out the newest series, The Templar Detective Thrillers. Get started with The Templar Detective!
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It all began with the first James Acton Thriller. Start from the beginning with James Acton #1: The Protocol!
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Follow the Delta Force’s Bravo Team in their own series! Get started with Delta Force Unleashed #1: Payback!
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Want a little more espionage with your action? Then you need James Acton’s flawed former student, CIA Special Agent Dylan Kane, in your life. Start with Dylan Kane #1: Rogue Operator!
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Looking for great psychological thrillers with a detective who’s got issues? Then check out Detective Shakespeare #1: Depraved Difference!
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