Vampires have gotten downright cuddly lately — but inBlood Gospel by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell , they ’re at the center of a paranoid natural action thriller take hidden chronicle and long - buried iniquity . Rollins , the author of the SIGMA Force novels , combines his penchant for scientific discipline and diachronic mystery with Cantrell ’s mediaeval horror roots .
We ’ve got an exclusive excerpt from Blood Gospel , in which a squad of explorers ventures into an ancient tomb that ’s been uncovered by an earthquake , and find something … unexpected . And then at noon PST , Rollins and Cantrell will fall in to answer your questions about line Gospel . And about vampires in general .
4:54 P.M.-Three minutes before sundown
When his boots hit the ground , Jordan did an automatic stock list of his weapons . He patted the holstered sidearm on his hip , a Colt 1911 , then gibe the KA - BAR dagger strapped to his articulatio talocruralis . But his chief weapon - a Heckler & Koch MP7 - hung on a strap over his right shoulder . The machine pistol fired hardened brand round of golf to the beat of 950 per bit , capable of turning Kevlar armor into Swiss cheese .
He cursorily checked the weapon ’s safety , clip , and optics , ensuring he did n’t bump it against anything on the path down . He caught Erin staring .
“ You ask that much firepower down here ? ” Erin fold her baseball mitt in one-half and mug up them in her back pocket .
He shrug . “ It ’s standard channel for my team . ”
Before he could explain more , Sanderson ’s vox crackled over the radio in his earpiece . “ Sarge , we ’ve got an Israeli cargo helicopter come in . I ’m guessing they ’ve derive for the rest of the bodies . ”
The elimination cleaver was early , but just as well . Jordan wanted everyone off this bloody mountain as before long as possible . He touch his headphone . “ Got it . ”
He and Erin joined the rest of the team amass at a slender line in the cliff case . The ROV cablegram trailed down it and vanished into the darkness .
He glanced over at Erin . What the perdition had happened to her in the skimpy - to ? At first he ’d recall maybe she was scared of heights and worried about the abseil , but she ’d palm that without blinking an optic . He suspected she did have more than a hundred acclivity behind her . So she must have figure or heard something during the few minutes she was alone that knock her down . He did n’t guess she ’d tell him the whole truth about it . She seemed well now , but he hoped whatever it was would n’t touch the mission .
Cooper pulled his caput out of the two - animal foot - wide crack the ROV had run through and thresh about a glowstick , light up the way in front . “ That man - made burrow open just past this furrow . ”
Hands on his hips , McKay eyed the belittled opening .
Jordan clap him on the shoulder . “ besotted fit , but you should make it . ”
McKay shook his head . “ Spoken by a tight fitting guy who can scarcely bench - pressure his weight . ”
Jordan was n’t skinny , and he could certainly bench much more than his weight . But he ’d fit through . For McKay in full geartrain , it would be a tight squeeze .
Cooper smiled an overly panoptic smile . “ you could always undress to your slavey and rub yourself in grime . ”
“ And give you a free show ? Not in all probability . ”
Lieutenant Perlman stood with his arms crossed , frowning . The other Israeli soldier shifted from foot to foot .
Jordan saw no understanding to check . The sun was setting , and he want to get done here soon . He aline his shoulder lamp .
“ Let ’s move . ”
4:57 P.M.-Sunset
Kneeling , Erin see the others file into the crack . She line in a conservative breath . She gestate a chemic odor , even though Tyson and Sanderson had devote the tune a thumbs - up . Instead , it smell frowsty , commix with a staleness that came from position unoccupied for a long metre . The familiar and oddly comforting scent of an onetime tomb .
She pat the dart in her sock and abide to survey Jordan into the narrow-minded orifice . Rough stone wall pressed against both shoulders , and she turn sideway , hope that McKay would make it through without losing too much skin .
The air sense much cooler than on the mountaintop . Underfoot , her sneakers sank in the sand . The glowstick cast an eerie yellow pall along the tunnel . When she reached the reefer , she resist the urge to cull it up and shove it in her pocket . They were littering an archaeological site . She made a note to get it on the way back . She kept one hand running along the top of the whirl , making sure that her head would n’t demote into the crevice ’s roof as she spurt on , anxious to get to the tomb and begin explore .
Ahead McKay allow free with a cosmic string of curses as he sack up the seam , mostly demand the constriction of the squeeze . Cooper laughed gleefully .
Erin found herself smiling . She frequently worked with soldiers , often at sites located in areas of dispute . In the past times , she had view the military as a necessary iniquity , but she already feel an odd bond with this grouping , forged by horror and bloodshed above and by tautness below .
At last , she and Jordan accomplish the end of the narrow seam . He tread out into a humanity - made tunnel , then help her to climb barren . Out in the passageway , he book up a deal , betoken she should stand pat .
“ We hold back for the all clear from the team . ”
He was in care down here , for now . She quit and allude the tunnel wall , feeling sharp - edged ding , picturing chisels and power hammer and sweating men . She dropped to a genu and tinct the path , pinching up dirt and letting it be given through her fingers .
Someone had dug this out thousands of year ago . Who had walk through here ? And why ?
A few feet off , clump of rocks close up the modern burrow she ’d seen on the rover ’s cameras . The tunnel must have collapsed . She rival the drill marks on the edge . 20th 100 . But when ?
She tell apart what looked like the elastic strap and the formative faceplate of a modern - era gas masque crushed under a boulder . She walked toward it , drawing Jordan with her . If this had been an prescribed expedition , she would have known about it . If it was unofficial , how had they concealed that tumid of an undertaking at such a celebrated internet site ? There would have to have been a lot going on at the time .
Like a war .
Before they could examine anything further , Jordan ’s tuner bombilate . It was trashy enough that she find out Cooper ’s tinny voice say , “ Chamber is strong , Sarge . You might want to get your asses in here . Some bed - up squat go down . ”
“ Heading over . ” Jordan waved for her to uphold with him . “ Stick to my side , Doc . ”
She followed , making a mental checklist of thing to do : apply a metal demodulator to seek for tools , scrape smut from the ceiling to judge the type of blowtorch utilize by the prole , apply a plaster of Paris cast to the wall to discern what tools were used to jab here .
The kind of things Heinrich had been in force at . She stumbled a step , and Jordan caught her arm , his hired man warm and reassuring , his eyes relate . “ Doc ? ”
She judder her head and undulate him on .
After another ten yard , they arrived at the incoming to the hugger-mugger chamber she had just experience through the ROV ’s cameras . An ancient and well - made doorway .
The threshold was too minute for two people to come in at once . She hung back and let Jordan parry through first . She estimated the entryway at a hair over six feet tall and reached one hand up to softly touch the arch , then step over the verge behind him .
jackass extrusion rose on her arms . The strain was even cooler here . The subdued light of three yellow glowsticks that had been tossed indiscriminately deep down revealed a well - made limestone floor , tall , soot - blotch ceilings , close - suit stone blocks on the walls . She would have sleep together to be able-bodied to take picture of the detritus on the floor , maybe see the step of the grave robber who had opened the sarcophagus . But Jordan and his hands had already tramped through and overlaid ancient footprint with their own .
The others gathered across the room , huddle on the far side of the sarcophagus , face up the wall . There must be something very interesting there . As presently as she got a better sense of the overall website , she ’d let herself join them .
“ Please match nothing , ” she called , fully expecting them to ignore her .
She entered , stepping past the ROV , and thwart to the stone sarcophagus . As she expected , it was carved from a single stone , the position fine wrought , each corner utterly angled , each side absolutely categorical . She marveled afresh at the workmanship of those ancient crafter . Their tool might be considered primitive , but the results certainly were n’t . She glanced at the polished top where it lie in one piece on the floor beside the tomb it had covered for so long . Odd to see it intact , as serious robber ordinarily broke the lid of sarcophagus when they pull them off .
She searched for the pulley-block or circle that must have been used , but the looter had taken their tools back out with them . Also unusual .
She step forrad - but a paw cease her .
“ What did I say about sticking nigh to me ? ” Jordan inquire .
Together , she and Jordan go up the sarcophagus . When she was finally airless enough to take some pictures , she poke out the only creature still in her will power : her cellphone phone . She took multiple shot of the sarcophagus ’s side and the raft of ash at the corners , wishing she had her Nikon , but it was back in Caesarea .
She gamble a peep inside the casket . Nothing . Just bare gem , stain mystifying Bourgogne . What would make a stain like that ? Blood dried Brown University . Most resins ended up black .
She also took a few pictures of the empty clay jug around the sarcophagus . They must have carried liquid down here . normally they were used for wine , but why fill a sarcophagus with wine-colored ?
As she straightened , Jordan turn from the far wall . Even in the black light , she could tell he was upset . “ Doc , you desire to explain this one ? ”
She expect over as the men split to either side .
A macabre sculpture string up on the wall , like a blasphemous crucifixion . She moved past the nook of the sarcophagus . With each footstep , a turn revulsion rise in her .
It was n’t a sculpture .
On the bulwark hung the desiccated remains of a minor girl , maybe eight years erstwhile , dressed in a tattered , stained gown . A handful of blackened arrows pinned her in spot , a sound yard off the base . They pierced her chest , cervix , shoulder , and second joint .
“ Crossbow bolts , ” Jordan read . “ Looks like they ’re made of silver medal . ”
Silver ?
She stood before the minor , struck by one anachronism after another . The girl ’s burgundy robes looked ancient , both in style and in the degree of decay . The ornamentation and pattern of weave dated from the same period as the fall of Masada . believably made in Samaria , maybe Judea , but at least two thousand class one-time .
farseeing dark tomentum framed the sunken facial expression . Her eyes closed peacefully , her chin hang to her thin breast , lips set forth ever so slightly as if she had become flat in mid - sigh . Even her tiny cilium were entire . Judging by the amount of easy tissue paper still clinging to her bones , the girl had been dead only a few decennary .
Decades . How could that be ?
An target lie down crumpled under the girl ’s toes . Erin neglect to a knee next to it .
A chick . . .
Her heart ached . The tiny dried toy was crafted from hardened lumps of leather stitched with scraps of fabric and maculate the same Bourgogne as the robes . The child ’s falloff weapon system seemed to be reaching for her toy , perpetually unable to claim it .
The abandon skirt struck Erin deep as she remembered
another like it , handmade , too . She had immerse it with her baby sister . She swallowed hard , contend back tear , feel foolish for it . Heinrich ’s dying proceed to throw her off balance , and right now she had to pull in herself together in front of the soldiers .
Still on her knees , she glanced up to the tyke ’s other hired man , half hidden behind her soundbox , and saw a flicker from between the curled fingers .
unpaired .
She leaned one laurel wreath against the wall , feel hard howitzer extruding between the brick . Though the body was the outcome of a recent slaying , not an ancient one , she still treat the remains with regard . This tike was once someone ’s little lady friend .
She get hold of for that hand . The missy ’s limb tremble , then jerk . The entire mummified physical structure shake against the wall as If the child still lived .
Erin fall back with a gasp .
A handwriting grip her shoulder , steadying her .
“ Another aftershock , ” Jordan said .
all right dust sieve from the Lucy Stone roof . Behind Erin , a brick thud to the floor . She contain her breath until the quake ceased .
“ They ’re make worse , ” Jordan said . “ Nothing here for us . Time to go . ”
She resisted the pull of his arm . This was her site now , and there were still thing here for her to explore . She shifted nearer to the wall and reached again for the little girl ’s script .
Jordan noted her tending and dropped beside her . “ What is it ? ”
“ Looks like the child grab something before she drop dead . ”
Archaeological protocol dictate that nothing be touched before it had been snap , but this girl had not been murdered that long ago , so Erin would forgo protocol just this once .
Reaching out , she nudged the missy ’s fingerbreadth undecided . She had wait them to be brickly but establish them eerily pliable . Surprised at the res publica of the body , she missed overhear the object as it fell free . It dropped in the debris .
She did n’t need a doctor’s degree in archaeology to recognize this artifact .
Jordan swore under his breathing spell .
She stare dumbfounded at the medal , at the atomic number 26 crisscross , at the swastika .
German .
From World War II .
Here was the identity element of the grave robber , the ones who had bore down here with modern tool . But why was this laurel wreath seize in the mummified finger’s breadth of a girl inside an ancient Jewish grave ?
Jordan clinch a clenched fist . “ The Nazis must have got here first . Raided and emptied this place out . ”
His password clarified small . Hitler was haunt with the occult , but what had he hoped to discover in Masada ?
She scrutinized the girl ’s apparel . Why would the Nazis take so much care to dress a small fry in replicas of the first millenary , only to crossbolt her to the wall ?
She pictured the daughter rip the medal off her tormenter ’s uniform , hiding it , steal proof of who kill her . Again an upwelling of fellow feeling for this child - and for the courage of this last act- swept through her . teardrop again uprise in her eye .
“ Are you okay ? ” Jordan ’s fount was snug enough for her to see a fine scar on his chin .
To hide her crying , she lifted her earpiece and engage several pictures of the palm . The young lady had go to great distance to fasten a clue to the personal identity of her murderer . Erin would register her proof .
Once she bring down her earphone , Jordan pass to the dust , piece up the medal , and flipped it over . “ Maybe we can find out who did this . SS officer often cut up their names on the inverse side of their medallion . Whoever this mongrel was , I want his name . And if he ’s somehow still live . . . ”
At that moment she like Jordan more than ever . Shoulder to shoulder , they canvass the belittled metal disk . No name covered the reverse side , only a unknown symbol .
She take a snapshot of it in Jordan ’s palm tree , then translate aloud the run-in along its border . “ Deutsches Ahnenerbe . ”
“ That makes sentiency , ” Jordan say sourly .
She shot him a quizzical glance . late German history was not her specialty . “ How so ? ”
He lean the medallion from side to side . “ My grandfather fought in World War Two . say me tale . It ’s one of the reasons I joined up . And i ’m a bit of a chronicle buff . The Deutsches Ahnenerbe were a cloak-and-dagger faction of Nazi scientists with an interest group in the occult arts who went around the earth seek lost treasure and proof of an ancient Aryan slipstream . Himmler ’s band of grave robbers . ”
And they got here first . She felt a sinking sense of defeat . She was used to studying grave that had already been overcharge , but those thefts usually happened in antiquity . It rankled her that this tomb had been plunder bare decades ago .
He touched the center of the symbol . “ That ’s not their usual symbol . usually , the Ahnenerbe are represented by a sword wrapped in a typewriter ribbon . This is something new . ”
Curious , she touched the central symbol . “ look like a Norse rune . From Elder Futhark . Maybe an Odal rune . ”
She trace it in the dust on the floor with a finger .
“ The runic letter represents the letter O. ” She turned to Jordan . “ Could that be the medal owner ’s initial ? ”
Before she could ruminate it further , McKay bark , “ Freeze ! hand in the air ! ”
Startled , she spin around .
Jordan shoulder his Heckler & Koch machine pistol and wind toward the tomb ’s entrance . Again the ground shook , tilt dust shivered - and from out of the shadows , a colored shape stepped into the way .
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