I've commissioned an artist for the Book 1 covers. (It's titled "The Spaceship in the Stone" if you didn't know.)
The first suit image was the original idea for the suit, but I didn't really like the shape of the helmet; it was too alien, and the nose covering reminded me of a bird's beak.
Next, we have the second iteration of Michael's battle-suit, with a few tweaks in the new helmet design. I like this one much better.
Finally, the third image is the first work-in-progress...
2021-06-27 10:16:37 +0000 UTC
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Flying in a private plane that costs more money than I will probably ever see in my life—the only way to travel. Seriously, this thing was able to make the trip from New York City to Japan in one go; without any need to refuel, and had enough left in the tanks to travel a few thousand miles more.
“So, what can you tell me about your friend?” I asked Marcus after we had a quick lunch, which Esmeralda had a gourmet restaurant deliver before the plane took off. With it came a refrige...
2021-06-20 11:01:50 +0000 UTC
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"Sir, there is a bicycle courier in front of the building. He has brought a package for you.”
One of the security agents told me, and I went outside to sign for the parcel. It never reached my hands; two security technicians took it from a confused courier, who then had the pleasure of answering a few questions about where the package was picked up, and who gave it to him. Of course, firstly he had to prove that he was in fact just a courier, while his crede...
2021-06-16 10:22:36 +0000 UTC
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“No signs of forced entry,” Marcus said as he went around Nina’s room, sniffing the air. If the situation wasn’t so serious, I would have probably made some lame joke about it.
I called him immediately after trying Nina’s phone; that led me nowhere as the call went directly to her voice mail. It was a long shot, but I had to try. For all I knew, there could be a perfectly reasonable explanation for all the things that were out of the ordinary in the house. Arguably, the odds w...
2021-06-13 10:46:15 +0000 UTC
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Being hungry is not a pleasant condition; even more so for me than it is for regular humans. This body of mine requires plenty of fuel to operate at its optimal efficiency, and that’s why my office has multiple stashes of high-calorie snacks to keep me topped up.
Besides, the gag-inducing stink of Xavier’s decomposing body was still lingering in my nostrils. Anything that can erase that would be a blessing. I sympathized with Julius and his loss, but I couldn't get out of t...
2021-06-09 10:39:56 +0000 UTC
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Nothing exciting happened in the next few weeks. I’ve had only two cases since my meeting with the ‘Were-Council’, and they were of a lightweight variety. Not to mention that one vampire guy came in and wanted to hire me to find his lost pet dog… and I did, to Marcus’s infinite amusement. The little pooch was shacked-up with his new girlfriend, a mixed breed that was twice his size. What can I say, it was a paying gig, and I needed to do something… anything. If I wasn’t flush wi...
2021-06-06 10:46:07 +0000 UTC
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I managed my two hours of sleep, and after another scalding hot shower went downstairs. It was a Sunday, so Nina was sleeping in. Given her werecat nature, not an unusual thing. Seriously, living for some time in the same house with someone exposes you to their various eccentricities. For example, if she didn’t get her eight hours of beauty sleep during the night, she was catty the entire day. (That was a nice pun.)
There wasn’t any food in the fridge, except for s...
2021-06-02 10:24:49 +0000 UTC
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This navigational gadget glued to my dashboard was quickly growing on me, despite its annoying idiosyncrasies. I don’t think it was a top-of-the-line model; at least once a week it glitched and slipped into its default Chinese mode and had to be reset. Still, how did people go anywhere before it was invented, I have no idea. OK, I know—we used maps, but this is ten times more convenient. Nina is in for a pay raise, for sure (as soon as she tells me how much I am paying her).
The dir...
2021-05-30 11:09:36 +0000 UTC
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A few uneventful weeks later, I was browsing some occult sites on the Internet. It is fair to say that I was blown away when Nina showed me that there was an entire supernatural part of the Darknet. A cloak-and-dagger area of the web that I had used previously, before my long sleep, when I had a different life and occupation.
Moreover, similar to becoming a customer of the Cleaners, one couldn’t so much as take a peek inside without a referral from someone in the
2021-05-26 11:06:40 +0000 UTC
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The morning came soon enough, and with it—the infernal screeching from below.
I quickly put on some clothes and hurried downstairs to save Nina; it sounded as if she was being verbally attacked by some crazed banshee.
The sight before me was a little confusing; there was this middle-aged woman in front of her, dressed very elegantly, and she was waving her hands in the air while screaming at my secretary. Nina was screaming right back at her. I decided to listen for a few moment...
2021-05-23 11:37:59 +0000 UTC
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Fifteen thousand bucks was a nice figure for my first job, but it will take a hell of a lot more to pay Marcus back, no matter that he and Esmeralda said I didn’t owe them anything.
He called me shortly after I came back, to make sure I did not lose my temper and made a few wolf skins rugs, and to tell me he had some more information for me. He would pick me up tomorrow, and take me to a guy who knew something, and no, we couldn't use my car for some reason. (Actually, he was...
2021-05-19 10:05:56 +0000 UTC
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Here I was, owning a house for the first time in my life, and with a moral and financial debt to Marcus and Esmeralda. I don't know how, but I will find a way to set the records straight. Not that I was considering refusing the gift, that would be insulting to both of them, but where there’s a will, there’s a way. Gramps always taught me that there should be a sort of balance one should strive for, so accepting something like this without giving something reciprocal in value, fel...
2021-05-16 10:46:15 +0000 UTC
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I got up from the bed and had a long scalding shower, trying to wash off this persevering feeling of filth that was embedded under my skin. It is disturbing when you can't remember the last time you brushed your teeth; the thick layer of biofilm coating them was a disgusting sensation underneath my tongue.
For the next half an hour, I let the water cleanse me, while my mind was occupied with thinking about things I needed to do.
I didn't sleep at all the previous night after Esmer...
2021-05-12 10:30:30 +0000 UTC
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As I said, that was the time of my downward spiral to the bottom of existence. OK, maybe not technically a spiral, more of a terminal velocity dive without a parachute. In any case, there is a very predictable outcome that one can inevitably experience when he finally makes contact with solid ground.
For the next two months, I was pretty much drunk all the time. Doing my very best to forget this wretched life of mine, to self-destruct. I was angry at the entire world and needed...
2021-05-09 06:53:40 +0000 UTC
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As he promised, Marcus made an appointment for me with the doctor that treated supernaturals. He came into my room early in the morning, and I had just gone to bed a few hours before. What? I don’t need to sleep much and do you have any idea how addicting some sites are on this new and improved Internet? (By the way, I am not talking about funny cat videos.)
“Oh, for heaven sakes,” he murmured, then quickly crossed the room to open the window.
“What?” I asked, faking ign...
2021-05-05 06:40:07 +0000 UTC
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One of the things I need to get used to is being fully awake to welcome every sunrise. Not be able to sleep for more than a few hours really messes up with my perception of time; it is not natural. But then again, what is natural about me anymore?
The morning came extraordinarily slowly. After a few hours, I was fed up with what passed as entertainment in this time. While the Internet has become far more sophisticated, there are ads everywhere, and all of them ask for my email ...
2021-05-02 10:23:20 +0000 UTC
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The ordered wake-up call made me want to smash that infernal device into a million pieces. I refrained since I needed to empty my bladder of an impressive amount of filtered alcohol—as quickly as possible.
Any doubt I had about the vampire’s ability to get drunk was cleared up last night when I had to carry the very plastered Marcus back to the hotel, while he continued singing in an off-key voice. Oh, I was drunk too, and still have some blank spots in my memory, but my in...
2021-04-28 06:30:40 +0000 UTC
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We finally reached that Amazon village, following the GPS map on Marcus's phone, and were able to hire a boat to drive us down the Amazon River. The first village was a sorry excuse for a human settlement; six houses of extremely poor people, trying to make a living out of the unforgiving environment. Their ancestors were at least free, rulers of the jungle. Not a bit civilized, but probably a lot happier.
Marcus spoke their language and hired a local fisherman that had the most reliabl...
2021-04-25 10:23:47 +0000 UTC
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There is not much to do while walking through the endless sea of green but talk.
“I certainly can’t turn into a bat!” Marcus indignantly answered one of my numerous questions.
“How the hell would that work anyway? It would break the principle of mass conservation in a way that makes my head hurt. Forget what you watched in the movies, Adam, most of it is pure fantasy.”
“Hold your horses there chief, I was just asking… so no bats, what about garlic?” I asked n...
2021-04-21 10:00:06 +0000 UTC
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The sound of the jungle woke me up. A fierce and loud roar of some unseen predator made all wildlife in it make some noise in response. A deafening rumble of the waterfall, and the splashing of the river on the bank where I was lying, were constant. It was surprising that all the racket didn’t bother me at all in my exhausted sleep.
It was night, the full moon made everything visible, much better than the glow-worms illumination I was used to using by now. However, something was wrong...
2021-04-18 10:21:20 +0000 UTC
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Oh shit… everything hurts.
Waking up was slow… and excruciatingly painful. Not a sensation I was unfamiliar with, by all means. My mind felt exactly like one does coming out of a long surgery, when you are all groggy and sluggish, and have a hard time remembering your own name. Only, in that case, you still have the anesthetic coursing through your veins, providing that euphoric pain relief, and I had none of it.
Even opening my eyes was a Herculean effort; maybe some...
2021-04-14 10:22:29 +0000 UTC
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The next morning started normally; well, what can be considered normal for the Amazon jungle. Howler monkeys were doing their thing and numerous birds were making an unholy noise. Luckily, there was an army of insects to keep us occupied. I did everything like the day before; not to do so would’ve made my would-be executioners’ highly suspicious. We continued the trek to the location on the map. By my calculations, we would reach it by the end of the day, and I would fin...
2021-04-11 11:12:03 +0000 UTC
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Colonel Bill Becker was my unit commander, but in truth, more of a handler. He gave assignments and took care of necessary intelligence. Although, there is something to be said about the maxim which states that military intelligence is a contradiction in terms, he never seemed that bright to me. A career officer and a full bird colonel, but I never truly took a shine to him, and I had a good reason. The SOB was the very one who sold me on this new and exciting life. He was a...
2021-04-07 11:27:22 +0000 UTC
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Everything changed on that last mission; it went FUBAR so fast in the end, I don't know what I could have done differently to change the outcome. OK, that's a lie. Pig-headed stubbornness and a desire to settle a score—were my ultimate downfall. I could have called in sick, or gone AWOL in the jungle at any time. I had the skills to disappear so no one could have ever found me. But I didn't, and as they say—hindsight is 20/20.
I'm getting ahead of myself, which is undoubted...
2021-04-07 11:23:15 +0000 UTC
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I was always good at killing.
That is not something one should normally brag about, but it is just an undeniable fact, a gift if you will.
I usually don’t even think about such things, as these moments of deep introspection bums the hell out of me—every single time. Although, I am right now standing above a dead body, with a knife in my hand, and yes, those are drops of blood falling from the tip of the blade. Therefore, thoughts related to contemplation on one’s ex...
2021-04-07 11:20:19 +0000 UTC
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This is the place where I will finish the third tome of my logs, and I must congratulate you for reading these words describing my brilliance, OK, just kidding… mostly.
Nevertheless, I feel with the ending of this part, that we have arrived at some kind of crossroads. Despite all the obstacles we had to face, it seems like it was an easy ride compared with what is in front of us.
As if all we went through was nothing but a way to prepare us for what is coming—the looming shado...
2021-04-07 11:15:45 +0000 UTC
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Sometimes people need to get their minds off the bigger problems they are facing. All those life-changing situations they cannot influence, but at the same time, the ones they need to endure.
That is why we made such a big spectacle of the new Space Station’s final arrival into its parking orbit, and out of naming the station and a celebration that followed.
The demons are coming; there is no doubt in my mind about that. After three months without the scout ship sending any prel...
2021-04-07 11:12:49 +0000 UTC
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When someone has unwelcomed and unannounced visitors, one of the options is to simply not answer a doorbell and to wait a while until they do the decent thing and leave. It is a tried-and-tested method, even if it leaves you feeling afterwards a bit like a tool for hiding inside your own home.
I wish it was that simple in this case, but it wasn’t, and these visitors were more accustomed to immediately breaking down the door and commence trashing your house, without bothering to announ...
2021-04-04 10:22:34 +0000 UTC
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How do you find a needle in a haystack?
Though it may seem strange, it is quite easy—simply use a very powerful electromagnet and the damn thing will fly to you.
My task was something very similar to that old conundrum; to find a stasis chamber module that was deliberately hidden on Mars almost thirteen thousand years ago, so… a piece of cake? Not even close! Which was due to the haystack being the size of an entire planet and all I had were a few tiny magnets.
...
2021-03-31 12:37:26 +0000 UTC
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Dealing with some people can cause a variety of side effects; some of them are anger, anxiety, heightened blood pressure, death…
OK, that last one is a bit drastic, nevertheless, it is very true.
I’m having trouble with accepting criticisms of others; no matter what, I get wildly contrasting responses—it is insane. Some people love the changes we are making, while others despise them. The second group has no problems with eloquently expressing themselves online. There lies t...
2021-03-28 10:22:02 +0000 UTC
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