Book II of the exciting children of Zachnia series is currently being finished and should be available soon.
Book I is currently free to download on Amazon and is #15 on the free download charts.
Often called the entertainment capital of the world…….Las
Vegas!
A place where
your dreams come true or your nightmares become a reality.
A town for millionaires to live out their dreams and a
town of promise for those who dream.
Sitting in a deserted hay barn just off of Nevada state
route 146 was Jack Henry or JH as everyone called him.
JH, was commonly known as the ‘fix it man’ where it was his job to supply the Chamrar groups with equipment and all
the new state of the art gadgets.
JH cursed as he raised his arm to look at his watch,
it was 8.15PM and Zach Jensen and his group were forty five minutes late.
If there was anything that would get him angry it was
people not being punctual, he was well known for his sombre attitude, a
personality trait from when he worked for British army intelligence during
World War 2.
JH was just about to phone Pierre to air his
complaints when his watch started to bleep; quickly he walked over to a broken
window and saw the headlights of a car driving into the dirt road leading to
the barn.
‘Do you think this is the place’ Zach Jensen said as
he hit the main beams.
“According to this map, that is the place” answered
Leo in the passenger seat looking at a creased piece of paper.
“There is someone in that barn.” Han suddenly added as
she could sense someone was close.
Zach dipped the lights and pulled up slowly just
outside the barn.
“Right, now everyone, keep their wits about them.” he
said
“I do not sense any danger.” Han said sounding calm
“Leo, just in case I want you to check the perimeter.”
replied Zach turning to Leo who then immediately opened the car door and in an
instant disappeared into the night.
When Zach, Han and Richard got out the car, JH pushed
open one of the barn doors which creaked loudly, and called them over.
“Over here! Come over here, you were supposed to be
here an hour ago” he shouted with his face scowled.
“Yeah nice to meet you also…” replied Zach
sarcastically as he squeezed past JH
“I was told there would be four of you.” snapped JH
just as Han and Richard entered the barn.
“He’ll be here in a moment.” answered Richard smiling
as he noticed a blur which was coming towards them from the dirt road.
“Who will be here in a moment?” barked JH before he
suddenly jumped as a gust of wind brushed past him and Leo suddenly appeared
like magic.
“Leo Massera, nice to meet you.” answered Leo smiling
like a naughty schoolboy.
JH sighed noisily.
“Damn stunts! When will you learn.” he cursed as he
walked inside.
“We were only being cautious.” answered Richard.
“Well you weren’t being cautious enough was you.” he
snapped back which puzzled the group.
JH then smiled and told the group to look up to the
ceiling where he had earlier placed an automated gun and programmed it to point
at anyone who walked into the barn.
The group looked up and JH suddenly sighed loudly with
a puzzled look on his face.
“What were you saying about being cautious.” replied
Han proudly
“Did you do that?” answered JH looking at Han with an
angry scowl as he saw the gun was now pointing away from them.
“Yes.” answered Han now feeling slightly worried that
she may have done something wrong.
“Don’t talk to her like that! She did not know, she
was protecting all of us.” Zach then snapped as he defended her.
JH creased his face into a smile and nodded to himself.
“Very good.” he said now relaxing his voice and
posture.
“So you are a Pangkor.” he added looking at Han and
saying the name for a Chamrar who can
move objects with their mind.
Han smiled back now looking slightly embarrassed as JH
stared admiringly at her.
“So are you going to tell us why we’re here?” said
Zach breaking the awkward silence and making JH snap from the intense stare he
was giving Han.
JH suddenly smiled as he walked to a table where there
was a blanket covering some objects on it, he pulled the cover with a swish to
reveal a host of high-tech gadgets and weapons.
“My name is Jack Henry, everyone calls me JH, you will
all be seeing a lot of me from now on, and unfortunately it is my arduous task
to make sure you are all prepared when you engage on your missions.” he said
before looking towards the wall
“This is Johnson.” he added looking into an empty
space which made the group wonder what on earth he was talking about.
Zach looked at Richard and raised his eyebrows before
looking back at JH and then looking at the empty space by the wall where
suddenly before his eyes a huge muscular man began to appear.
JH smiled as Johnson walked over
“Johnson is my assistant and he is also my protector.”
“How did I not sense you?” Han suddenly asked looking
confused.
JH pointed to a watch on Johnsons arm.
“It is what I call a mind scrambler; it can make you
invisible by scrambling the senses.”
“Sub-conscious signals.” added Richard as he reached
out to Johnsons arm and inspected the watch.
“Will that work with anyone?” asked Zach looking
impressed.
“Anyone who wears the device can be hidden but it only
works for two minutes then you become visible again….But be careful, I have
been told that some vampires are immune to its effects.”
“Why only two minutes?” asked Leo
JH shrugged slightly.
“It is something I am working on, for some reason
after two minutes your mind figures out that it is being deceived and the
signal is unscrambled.”
“What about animals, does it shield you from them.”
asked Richard as he worked out that the scrambler must use a very high pitch
frequency for its signals which are inaudible to the human ear.
“That is a very good question and a very important
one, and your suspicions for asking the question are correct, it does not work
on animals.” answered JH.
“Werewolves.” Han added.
“No, it will not work with werewolves.” replied JH.
“Who wants to hide from a werewolf anyway? I would
rather kill them than run from them.” Zach boasted.
Richard Dunhill smiled at Zach’s outburst before
walking over to the table where he began to look at the different gadgets.
JH picked up a watch and started to speak.
“These are absolutely brand new, they have just been
finished today and they come with all the latest features, they have the
scramblers inserted and they have tracking devices which can be used by your
iPhones and iPad.” JH said pointing to the table at the cell phones and
computer tablets.
Zach picked up one of the Rolex watches up and put it
on his wrist where JH showed him what the buttons on the side did.
Richard picked up his watch and inspected it also; he
then asked JH what the small dial was on the back of the watch was for only for
JH to quickly grab the watch from him.
“Don’t touch that unless it is absolutely necessary.”
he said showing alarm in his voice
“You’re not going to tell me there is a bomb in this
watch are you.” Zach said now looking slightly uneasy at the watch on his
wrist.
“To activate it you turn it counter clockwise to nine
o’clock, you will have twenty seconds to get as far away as possible.”
“How big will it be?”
“Big enough to destroy a car.”
“That’s lovely.” sighed Richard looking and sounding
very pessimistic about the thought of wearing a small bomb on his wrist.
“Do these things ever malfunction?” he added
“Ah, don’t be silly, they are completely reliable.”
snapped JH sounding insulted.
“C’mon put them on.” he added as he picked the rest up
and handed them out to the group before reaching back down to the table where
he picked up a pair of sunglasses.
“Now these I am very proud of.” he boasted handing a
pair to Zach.
“Here… twist there.” he added as Zach put them on and
JH reached across turned one of the stems on the side.
Zach suddenly stiffened as his face broke into smile
showing he was clearly impressed.
“Whoa!” Zach gasped as suddenly the sunglasses turned
to night vision.
“Ha, ha” laughed JH pleased at Zach’s reaction.
“Now these are your credit cards.” he said handing out
an American express platinum card to each of the group, personalised with their
own names.
“What do these do?” asked Leo.
“You use them to buy things.” answered JH in a
frustrated tone.
Richard smiled broadly.
“Never leave home without it.” he uttered looking
pleased as he put it into his top pocket.
“What’s the limit on these cards?” he asked
“There is no limit, but that’s not an excuse to be
wasteful.” answered JH.
“Wasteful! How can spending money ever be called
wasteful.” replied Richard still talking slightly tongue in cheek.
Sitting regally on the strip of Las Vegas, the Beninio
hotel was the swankiest and most luxurious hotel in the city. Opened just
fourteen months ago it was already the place to be seen and where all the high
rollers played at.
The hotel itself was huge! There were six thousand
rooms in total spread over three towers with the main building stretching fifty
two stories into the sky; there were fourteen swimming pools and fourteen
restaurants and a whole floor of the casino which was filled with poker tables.
On the top floor of the tallest tower there were ten
Sky loft penthouse suites which main attraction was a retractable celling which
could be opened by remote control.
The Beninio hotel was owned by a consortium of
businessman called the Degrain foundation.
Samuel Anderson the CEO of the Degrain foundation was
clearly angered as he took the lift to the top floor on his way to penthouse
number one.
He had been on his way to a restaurant with his wife
when he received an urgent call on his cell phone from his colleague Bob Darcy
telling him he better get over to the penthouse as there was a serious incident
that needed his attention.
Bob Darcy shook his head like he was apologising when Samuel
Anderson walked out of the lift doors, there was a furious look on the face of
Anderson.
“I am sorry Samuel, I just cannot control him.” bob
said apologetically talking about Josh Douglas.
“He is just too wild.” bob added.
“Damn fool! Does he know what we are doing here.”
snapped Samuel biting his lip.
“If I was you Samuel I would just call Sarvash and
tell him Douglas should just return home, every other day he is causing us
problems.”
“Send him home! You’re forgetting that the reason
Sarvash sent him to us in the first place was to keep him out of trouble.”
snapped Anderson just as the lift reached the top floor.
Samuel Anderson cursed as Darcy opened the penthouse
door and before him he could see Josh Douglas sprawled out on the sofa dressed
only in his boxer shorts with a half-finished bottle of vodka in one hand and a
large Cuban cigar in the other. Scattered all around the floor were clothes and
broken bottles and glasses.
“Jesus!” Anderson snarled looking disgusted at Douglas.
Josh Douglas laughed when he saw Anderson.
“Jesus? He drank wine, we drink vodka.” Douglas said
sounding drunk and arrogant.
Samuel Anderson turned angrily to Darcy and ordered
him to clean the place up before he walked over to josh and grabbed the bottle
of vodka from his hand where josh jumped up angrily.
“What you doing with that bottle?” he growled.
“That’s the last drink you’ll be having under my roof.”
Samuel snapped, handing the bottle to Darcy.
“What’s the matter with you guys?” Josh pleaded now
enraged.
“We have all this damn money and power, who cares, you
walk around hiding, we are Shalm!” he added outstretching his arms.
“We can do what we want, who is going to stop us.” he
added raising his voice.
“I am!” snapped Anderson now looking enraged himself.
Josh Douglas furrowed his brow and walked closer to
Anderson; lowering his voice he answered him.
“What did you say?”
“It’s over josh, you’re going back to Sharlomy, and
this charade ends tonight.”
Josh scowled deeper and then pushed his face closer to
Samuels face squaring up to him.
“I would be careful what you say to me ‘shift boy’.”
“Pack your bags Josh, you leave tonight.” Samuel
replied sternly
Josh looked deeply back into his eyes and held the
stare for a moment, Josh’s face looked crazed, he then let out a low guttural
growl and moved his top lip just enough to reveal a set of fangs.
“You forget whose son I am.”
Anderson backed away from the confrontation and paused
for a moment before replying.
“Then start acting as Viktor’s son, you bring shame
upon his memory.” Samuel said with a slight apprehension in his voice.
“I will revenge his memory! Any empreen I find will
perish for what they have done to Viktor Drend.”
“Whoa! Now that is what I call a car!” Richard Dunhill
sighed as Johnson drove the brand new Mercedes S class into view.
JH asked Johnson to exit the car and then told Zach to
give him the iPhone that he gave him earlier.
“The car can be controlled with either your watch or
your iPhone.” he said as he then started to show Zach and the group some of its
functions.
“Using your iPhones GPS system you can start the car
and have it drive itself to where you want it, there are tiny cameras positioned
on the car that can steer it to wherever you want.”
“Your watch can lock and unlock it.” Johnson added.
JH then took the group round to the back of the car
and opened the cars boot, he reached over and pushed a small button on Zach’s
watch, there was a loud click and then a secret compartment opened to reveal an
assortment of hand guns and rifles.
“Silver bullets.” Zach joked as he picked up one of
the shiny revolvers.
“Don’t play with that, they have silver ammunition and
mercury ammunition, use them only when necessary.” he added sternly.
Richard Dunhill laughed at Zach being told off.
“Make sure it doesn’t get knocked out your hand next
time.” he joked reminding Zach of the confrontation with Viktor Drend in San
Francisco where Zach’s gun was knocked away by one of the werewolves.
“Yeah! It will be good if you’re in the room next time.”
Zach quickly snapped back.
“You’re the muscle Zach, I am the thinker.”
“Are you two finished?” JH barked, making Zach and
Richard finish their jibes at each other.
“Good now listen, you a have reservations at the
Venetian hotel on the strip, I suggest you all get a good night’s sleep and
some good food in you, John Sutter will come to the hotel to see you in the
morning.”
“What time?” asked Richard?
“Whatever time it suits John Sutter, and a word of
warning to all of you, don’t be taking your casual manner to John, he is a man
of few words and has no tolerance for fooling around.”
“Ok JH, we get it, tonight we eat and sleep and see
John Sutter in the morning.” replied Zach sounding slightly aggravated at JH’s
patronising comment.
“Good, I hope you do, that way you might survive this
mission!” replied JH.
“You sound doubtful of us, maybe someone didn’t tell
you, we are the group who killed Viktor Drend.”
“I know what you did!”
“Then stop worrying.”
“It is my job to worry….what you did to Drend, some
may call begginers luck…”
“Who would say such Bull!” interrupted zach sounding
offended.
“Pull your heads down from the stars and start
listening to me!.....You are not in san Francisco now, this is Vegas and here
the Shalm will come at you from everywhere.”
