Atlas
The
Atlas Series
Book
1
Becca
C. Smith
Genre:
Urban Fantasy
Publisher:
Red Frog Publishing
Date
of Publication: 11/14/13
ISBN:
978-0985027667 (Ebook)
ISBN:
978-1493648375 (Print)
ASIN:
B00GPBF8X2
Number
of pages: 293
Word
Count: 73,000
Cover
Artist: Stephan Fleet
Book
Description:
Kala
Hicks is part of a covert elite military team that answers directly
to the President of the United States. But during an emergency
mission aboard Air Force One, Kala is shocked to discover that the
real threat is none other than the President himself. Defying her
commanding officer, Jack Norbin, Kala takes the shot, and her life
changes forever.
The
moment the President is killed, a supernatural force speaks to Kala,
telling her that she has to commit one act of atrocity every four
days… or the world will end. Thrown into a reality she never could
have imagined, Kala faces off with creatures of legend; from demons
determined to make her fail and plunge the Earth into chaos, to
angels who don’t trust her to do the job and are willing to kill
her to claim it for themselves.
Pitted
against the forces of good and evil, Kala must choose whether to save
the world by doing the unthinkable, or sit back and let it burn. And
four days later, she’ll have to do it again.
Excerpt
End of Chapter 3:
Very
carefully, Jack opened the door that led to the President’s office.
What
awaited them was terrifying.
President
Jareth Wilton stood behind his desk. He was wearing a vest that held
five grey bars of C-4 wired into a bomb. Wilton was a tall man, well
over six feet with stark black hair and a long face. He was a young
President, only fifty years old, but he looked like he’d aged
twenty years since the last time Kala had seen him at a press
conference, with dark rings under his eyes and worry lines on his
forehead.
But
his smile was what made the scene surreal and horrific. His thin lips
were grinning as if he’d just climbed Mt. Everest.
President
Wilton stared directly at Jack as the door swung open the rest of the
way. “I figured it out! I figured out how to break it! No one will
ever have to do what I’ve had to do again! Do you realize what this
means?”
Kala
knew then and there that the man was cracked. Figured what out? Break
what? He was rambling like a mad man.
But
the more frightening moment came when Jack responded back to Wilton.
“Killing yourself is impossible. People have tried that in the
past.”
Not
only was President Wilton talking crazy, but apparently Jack knew his
language and was responding accordingly.
Kala
noticed that Wilton’s eyes lit up when Jack spoke. “You’re the
one they sent to replace me.”
Jack
nodded.
What?
Kala was seriously confused.
Kala
spoke up, “What’s going on Jack?”
Replace
him for what?
Jack
didn’t acknowledge Kala or the rest of the team, which was shifting
uncomfortably behind him.
Wilton
shook his head, serious. “You can’t do it. You have to let me
detonate this bomb. We have to crash the plane! It’s the only way
to stop it!”
“You
can’t stop it!” Jack yelled back.
“I
can and I will!” Wilton talked into an earpiece. “NOW!”
The
plane nose-dived.
Everyone
jolted forward and stumbled from the force of it.
Jack
barked orders, “Lali get up to the Flight Deck and by any means
necessary take over this plane!”
Lali
paused for a second, she looked more confused than Kala felt, but
after a moment to gain her bearings as the plane was falling fast,
she managed to high-tail it out of the room and up to the Flight
Deck.
Kala
was sure they’d hit ground at any moment.
Jack
aimed his gun at the President’s head.
Wilton
was frantic. He ducked behind his large oak desk that was bolted to
the ground.
“You
can’t kill me! You’ll ruin everything!” Wilton yelled.
Jack
turned to Kala and Derek. “No one shoots him but me!”
Kala
kind of nodded, but she was in shock at the fact that they were about
to flatten a part of the capital with Air Force One. She really
didn’t care what Jack was saying. She couldn’t let President
Wilton set off that bomb and kill thousands.
Jack
shot at the desk, trying to hit the president, but he didn’t come
close.
Only
Kala could make a shot like that and not get them all killed from
shooting a hole through the plane.
Kala
and Derek made eye contact. Kala could tell Derek was thinking the
same thing. He whispered so only Kala could hear, “Do it.”
Kala’s
nod was barely perceptible.
Jack
saw her and his eyes went wide. “Kala STOP!”
Kala
shrugged. “I can’t let him do this, Jack. I’m sorry.”
Only
the top of Wilton’s head was showing.
It
was enough.
Kala took her
shot.
Becca
C. Smith received her Film degree from Full Sail University and has
worked in the Film and Television industry for most of her adult
life. In 2010 Becca published her first novel, Riser followed by the
sequel, Reaper, in 2011, and the finale, Ripper in 2013. In 2012
Becca wrote the children’s novel Alexis Tappendorf and the Search
for Beale’s Treasure. She is also the co-author of the teen graphic
novel Ghost Whisperer: The Haunted.
Becca
currently lives in Los Angeles, CA with her husband, Stephan and
their two cats Jack and Duke.
Website:
http://www.beccacsmith.com
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/therisersaga
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