Greene's Calling: Seventeen Book Three (A Supernatural Action Adventure Thriller Series 3) (43 page)

Tomas Soul punched the air with a plump fist and went, ‘Gada!’ while his sister uttered a more dubious, ‘Ath?’

‘Well, at least we know what
their
first immortal ability’s going to be,’ muttered Alexa King in the uncomfortable hush that followed.

Conrad narrowed his eyes at his old mentor. ‘You
knew
where I was?’

Victor snorted. ‘Of course! Once Anatole let it slip that you were visiting Horatio, I arranged to have you tailed!’

Conrad silently cursed his absent friend. ‘What the he—?’ He stopped, glanced at the rapt babies, and corrected himself. ‘What does my lineage have to do with any of this?’

It was Dimitri Reznak who answered his question with another one. ‘Does the name Rafael mean anything to you?’

Conrad frowned. ‘No, it doesn’t.’

Dimitri Reznak spent the next hour recounting the most fantastical tale Conrad had ever heard in his entire existence. It was a story that dated back more than five thousand years, about a man called Romerus and the extraordinary fates that would befall the children he had borne.

Conrad listened with rising incredulity while the Crovir noble related his centuries-long quest to discover a truth that had been consigned to oblivion and how this crusade had come to fruition just over fourteen months ago, when he discovered a pair of caves in the mountains of the Eastern Desert, in Egypt. The body of evidence he uncovered finally started to yield the answers he had long sought about the origins of the two immortal races. Victor interjected from time to time, in support of Reznak’s words.

Halfway through their account, Conrad felt Laura’s hand slide on his. He turned his palm over until their fingers intertwined. He didn’t have to look at his soulmate to feel the shock reverberating through her.

As if their narrative wasn’t enough of a bombshell in itself, the nobles’ next two stories rocked Conrad to the core. By the time they finished retelling the extraordinary tales of Lucas and Anna Soul’s origins, as well as the formidable history of Alexa King, the immortal knew his world would never be the same again.

Conrad turned to the three figures on the couch, blood pounding dully in his ears. ‘We’re cousins?’ he breathed.

Lucas and Anna Soul smiled.

‘In a very distant sense, yes,’ said Alexa King, a trace of wariness still evident in her gaze.

‘But…how can you be so sure?’ Conrad turned to Victor, still reeling from everything he had just been told.

An embarrassed expression flashed across the Bastian leader’s face.

‘I stole the blood samples the doctors in Bermuda took from you and had them analyzed for your genetics,’ Victor admitted, his tone somewhat defensive. ‘They matched those from the samples Dimitri found in Egypt.’

Conrad’s jaw sagged in the stunned silence that followed. He wasn’t sure whether to be furious or appalled.

‘Seriously, the two of you need to stop this nasty habit you have of stealing other people’s blood,’ said Alexa. She was frowning at Reznak and Victor.

Anna sighed. Lucas muttered something under his breath.

Reznak crossed the room and stopped by Conrad’s chair. ‘May I?’ he said quietly. He indicated the immortal’s left arm.

Conrad swallowed the lump in his throat and pulled back his sleeve. The light from the fire flickered across the black Aesculapian snake on his forearm. For a breathless moment, the creature appeared to dance on his skin. Alexa leaned forward and scrutinized the birthmark.

‘Fascinating,’ murmured Reznak. ‘Most human historians know these creatures as being related to the healing arts practiced by the followers of the Greek God of medicine, Asclepius. They were said to be found freely roaming popular healing temples built during the fourth century BC for the deity.’ His gaze shifted to Conrad’s face. ‘The Aesculapian snake wrapped around a rod is still the most recognized symbol of medicine to this day.’

The Crovir noble indicated his goddaughter. ‘Alexa has a trishula birthmark, a symbol of her own unique lineage.’ He gestured to Soul. ‘Lucas has an alpha and omega one, a legacy of his original bloodlines.’

Conrad digested this information in silence. Reznak’s words about the rod of Asclepius resonated in his ears. The immortal hesitated and glanced at the woman beside him. Laura inclined her head. Conrad reached behind his back and took out his staff. He handed it to Reznak.

The Crovir noble carefully took the weapon off him. He examined it for some time before manipulating the rings. Conrad felt grudging approval radiate from Alexa when the spear blades and short swords appeared. Reznak looked thoughtful as he slid the blades back inside the shaft.

‘From the scriptures we found in Egypt and in the Ural mountains, the pureblood immortal from whom you, and all the men in your family who came before you, inherited your powers was said to carry a staff,’ said the Crovir. ‘Some of the writings mentioned that he used it as a walking stick, whereas others professed that he fought with it.’ He paused, his expression solemn. ‘He was known as the greatest healer who ever lived in those times and was said to use snakes in his rites. He also kept them as pets.’

‘This is the…
Rafael
you referred to at the beginning?’ Laura asked haltingly.

‘Yes,’ said Reznak.

Conrad stared at his hands, his head buzzing from the incredible revelations of the last hour. He thought of all that he had ever done with his immortal powers in the four hundred and sixty years of his existence and what he had more recently achieved, first with Rocky, then with Westwood. He had never heard of another immortal pulling off something like it in the past, in either his own bloodline or the rest of Bastian society.

‘Could Rafael…
give
life?’ Conrad said finally. He looked up at Reznak and Victor.

The Crovir noble appeared puzzled. ‘What, you mean as in procreate? Well, he obviously had children, otherwise you wouldn’t be—’

‘He doesn’t know?’ Conrad interjected. This time, he addressed the question squarely to Victor.

The Bastian noble shook his head. ‘I didn’t think it was my prerogative to tell him.’

‘What are you talking about?’ said Reznak.

Conrad took a deep breath. ‘I can do more than heal.’ He hesitated. ‘I can also gift one of my seventeen lives if I wish to do so.’

‘What?’ exclaimed Anna Soul. Her green eyes reflected shock and a glimmer of intellectual interest. Lucas and Alexa went still.

‘The seventeen pieces of an immortal’s soul reside in their heart,’ said Conrad. He heard Alexa inhale sharply and glanced at her pale expression. ‘I can feel all of mine and manipulate them. It’s not easy, but it’s doable.’

Reznak was quiet for some time. ‘As far as we know from the scriptures we have in our possessions, Rafael never gave away any of his lives,’ he said finally. He exchanged a troubled glance with Victor. ‘It seems that all your powers have evolved in some way or another. None of your ancestors could do what you can.’

‘Are there others?’ said Laura.

‘You mean other pureblood descendants of the original immortals?’ said Reznak.

Laura nodded shakily.

The answer came from Victor Dvorsky. ‘Yes. Based on the genealogy of the bloodlines, there may be two more. We don’t know for sure. As far as Dimitri and I are aware, it isn’t anybody in our current societies.’

Conrad’s mouth went dry at this news. He possibly had two more cousins out there.

An excited gurgle drew his eyes to the couch. Lily Soul was bouncing up and down on Alexa’s knees and wriggling her hands toward him in a demanding gesture.

‘Looks like she wants to get to know you,’ Alexa said wryly. She rose and came over.

Conrad suddenly found himself holding the baby.

Alexa frowned. ‘She’s not a bomb.’

‘Oh,’ blurted Conrad when he realized that he was holding his niece at arms’ length. He savored the word as he cradled the tiny body against his chest.
Niece
. It had a nice ring to it.

Lily Soul had inherited her father’s eyes and her mother’s complexion. She looked at him solemnly for a moment before reaching up. Plump fingers closed on his cheek. Conrad grinned at the warmth of her skin.

Lily’s lips curved in an answering beam as dazzling as the sun. ‘Karad,’ she said.

Laura gasped.

Conrad looked up, dazed. ‘Did she just try to say my—?’

Anna nodded with a tremulous smile. Conrad’s heart thudded wildly inside his chest. None of them had uttered his name since he entered the room.

Tomas sat on Lucas’s knees and watched Conrad with an identical grin to his sister, his green eyes bright. ‘Gada! Hel!’ he contributed enthusiastically.

Victor laughed.

‘I suspect Lily is going to be the brains of this outfit,’ said Alexa as chuckles rang around the room.

A sudden premonition blasted through Conrad as he gazed into the eyes of the twins. These children were special. He could feel it in the very marrow of his being.

He sensed the same awed awareness in the others’ expressions.

Laura reached across and gently stroked Lily’s face, hazel eyes gleaming with unshed tears. Lily grabbed her hand and cooed. In that instant, Conrad Greene felt the bonds of destiny irrevocably seal themselves around the immortals in that room. He thought of the two who still remained to be found, the missing links of their extraordinary circle.

They were out there.

He was certain of it.

THE END

Thank You

Thank you for reading this book. As a new author, reviews from readers like you play a vital role in helping me gain visibility and increase my readership. Please consider writing a short review on the site where you purchased my novel and sharing it with your friends on your social networking sites. It would mean a lot!

To find out about upcoming releases, as well as special promotions and offers, subscribe to my mailing list at
www.adstarrling.com

Author’s Note

As always, I would like to share with you some interesting “facts and fictions” about this novel.

The historical events behind the prologue and the first chapter are factual. Suleiman the Magnificent had his first-born son with Mahidevran Sultan, and later had him killed, for fear of a coup during the Persian campaign in the 1500s; Captain Branimir Rajkovic and the young Ariana are purely fictional characters. The Treaty of the Union was established in London in July 1706, under the patronage of Queen Anne. The talks between the English and Scottish commissioners assigned to the negotiations took place in the Royal Cockpit theatre, close to Whitehall and the Banqueting House.

Conrad’s birthmark, the Aesculapian snake, was inspired by the Rod of Asclepius, the most recognized symbol of medicine to this day. At the end of the book, I introduced the notion that Rafael, Conrad’s pureblood-immortal ancestor and Bastian’s second-born son, was the original “healer” upon whom all subsequent mythological figures, such as the Greek God Asclepius, were based. Giving Conrad a staff weapon to fight with was a logical step to complete the symbolism of the Rod of Asclepius.

The 1962 Columbus Day storm, Typhoon Freda, did happen and was perfect inspiration for a haiku.

Researching the structure of the US Secret Service and how these agents would protect the President during a public function, such as the FedEx Field fundraiser event, was hard work. It was only after trawling through dozens of newspaper articles, pictures, and the highly-instructive websites of several US government agencies, including that of the US Secret Service itself, that I managed to write those scenes. The White House Situation Room exists and is usually managed by a Sit Room director, as depicted in the book. Description of the physical layout and the idea of having the US Director of National Intelligence take over its operation are purely fictional. From my research, I gathered that mobile phones and other such devices are not normally allowed in the Sit Room, which was why I had everyone using landlines. Again, I took a lot of liberties with how the US intelligence community as a whole would coordinate their efforts if a similar crisis as the one depicted in the novel was to arise in real life. I hope it would mimic what I described in the book. The Crystal City US Secret Service detention facility is purely fictional.

The current US President travels in a custom-made Cadillac that contains a blood bank of his specific blood type in the trunk. The full resuscitation kit I included in the book is fictional. The current Chancellor of Germany counts an Audi A8 among her state cars.

The technology to make carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic guns and ceramic bullets that can evade metal detectors has existed for a number of years. The first publicly known plastic gun was shown to the world in 2013.

The fictional Obenhaus Group was loosely based on a very famous and innovative manufacturer of polymer materials, which started life in the German state of Bavaria. The plastic polymer OG1140 is fictional, although the methods used to produce it are factual.

The co-crystallization process used to make the poison and the liquid super explosive in the book is factual. As described in the novel, it has become an area of high interest again with regard to its applications in other industries besides pharmaceutics, including mining and explosives engineering. PETN and its derivative Pentolite were used extensively during the Second World War and large amounts remain leftover in old weapon stockpiles. The R.E. factor used to describe the power of the liquid explosive invented by Svein Hagen is factual. Cetrilium 24 is fictional.

The details of U.S. AFRICOM, the UAV, and the composition, hierarchy, and weapons of the US Marines Corps platoon, are based on factual research. Any mistakes in accurately depicting these are mine alone.

The Kola Superdeep Borehole and Project Mohole are factual, as are directional or horizontal boring and trenchless technology.

The Rajkovics’ yacht
The Ariana
is based on the super yacht
Anastasia
, designed by Sam Sorgiovanni Designs and made by Oceanco in 2008.

As usual, a lot of this research material is on my website, as “Extras” under the “Bonus” section. I also regularly feature the music that I would have accompanying many of the scenes in the books under the “News” section.