The
Azrael Initiative
Kayla
Falk Series Book 1
by
K Hanson
Genre:
Action Thriller
Best
friends Kayla Falk, an engineering student, and Olivia Bellamy, who
is studying nursing, are nearing the end of their college career when
terrorists attack their university. Through a combination of
cleverness, bravery, and luck, the two manage to foil the deadly
plot. A mysterious man from the United States government, Mr.
Hightower, sees their potential and attempts to recruit Kayla and
Olivia for a program to take on ISIS. They initially refuse, but
another terrorist attack that strikes close to home pushes them to
change their minds and join the Azrael Initiative.
After
several months of hard training, the two women are dropped into
Al-Raqqah, the capital of ISIS, in Syria. Once there, they must blend
in with the locals as they strike from the shadows to kill ISIS
leaders, destroy their facilities, and free captives. As Americans
deep within enemy territory, they know that they will be killed if
discovered. As women, they also know that they would suffer before
death. Walking the line between vengeance and justice strains their
relationship. As they work to resolve their differences, the symphony
of brutality around them ultimately pushes them closer together and
forges them into the warriors that they were meant to become.
Kayla jolted from her thoughts as she heard
the crack of gunshots from outside the restroom. Kayla froze in place. Screams tore through the
air. What the hell is happening out there? Leaving her bag behind, she crept to
the door of the bathroom. She peeked out and surveyed the violent, surreal
scene playing out in the Union.
At the opposite end of the Union, to Kayla’s
right, a man in a ski mask pointed an AK-47 toward the ceiling and shouted,
“Everyone get down and stay still! If you do as we say, you’ll all leave here
alive.”
Across from the restroom and near where Kayla
and Olivia had sat, another assailant pointed his gun at a group of students,
two of whom lay on the ground, a boy bleeding from a wound on his side and a
girl from a gunshot to her leg. The boy turned pale from blood loss and shock.
Other students cowered on the ground, behind tables, counters, or any other
cover available. All except for Olivia, who kept her head down as she moved
toward the wounded students with her bag.
“Stay where you are!” commanded the nearest
terrorist.
“Please,” begged Olivia, “let me take care of
them. Nobody else will bother you, I just need to stop their bleeding.”
“Fine. You can waste your time keeping him
alive until we kill all of you. If you try to go anywhere else, you won’t get
another warning.”
Kayla watched as her friend opened her bag of
nursing supplies and pulled out some gauze for the wounded students. As she
watched Olivia get to work, she caught movement on the second floor of the
Union. A third terrorist stood up there and peered over the railing to keep an
eye on the proceedings from above.
Shit. I can’t just sit here. I have to do
something.
Sliding back into the bathroom to think about
how to help her friend and the other students, Kayla took off her cardigan and
stuffed it into her backpack. As she scanned the room, she spotted a closet on
the far wall. Hoping that it contained something helpful, she tried the handle
but found it locked. She knelt on the ground and pulled a bobby pin from her
hair, letting the strands fall to her shoulders.
Years of helping her father in his shop had
taught Kayla many skills, including how to pick a lock. She wiggled the hair
pin into the lock, feeling for the key pins. One by one, she felt them click
into place. It felt like it was taking forever, as she thought about the
students in danger just outside the bathroom door. The shouting and screaming
from outside the restroom distracted her. Adrenaline coursed through her veins,
causing her hands to shake as she manipulated the pin.
Finally, she popped the last pin into place
and tried the handle once again. It gave way and revealed a closet full of
cleaning supplies, likely locked to prevent troublesome students from stealing
Windex.
Her searching green eyes looked over the
shelves, looking for anything that she could use as a distraction or a weapon.
At first glance, Kayla grabbed a mop and unscrewed the handle to use as a
staff. Behind the mop, she saw shelves stocked with bleach, vinegar, and baking
soda. Looking through the trash, she found several pop bottles. She used these
to divide the chemicals into smaller portions.
Placing the rest of the soda bottles of
cleaning supplies into her backpack, Kayla grabbed one small bottle of vinegar
and poured some baking soda into it. As the mixture started bubbling, she
sealed the container with a twist and tossed it into the restroom’s entrance
corridor. Dashing across the room, she pressed herself against the wall so that
she remained out of sight to anyone entering the restroom.
Kayla grasped the mop handle as she waited for
the chemical reaction to take effect and burst the bottle. She felt her heart
pounding in her chest with anticipation and fear of the fight to come. Sparring
with Olivia had taught her the moves she needed, but fighting an enemy who
wanted to kill her would be very different from a contest with her best friend.
She closed her eyes and covered her ears as she waited.
Bang!
The vinegar and baking soda bomb harmed
nothing, but made a terrible racket, sure to catch the attention of the gunmen
occupying the building.
The attackers began shouting.
“Go see what made that noise!” ordered the
voice of whoever must be in charge.
Kayla heard footsteps dashing toward the
restroom. She held her breath as the sound reached the entrance. From her
position hiding around the corner from the corridor, she remained out of sight
and relied completely on her sense of hearing. As the sound of running feet
reached her corner, Kayla stuck the mop handle across the bottom of the
doorway. The staff caught the terrorist’s legs and sent him crashing to the
floor. His rifle skittered across the room.
Kayla rushed toward him to keep the initiative
in her favor. However, he recovered quickly as he hopped onto his feet and
pulled out a long combat knife from his belt.
He stabbed at her with a quick thrust, and
Kayla knocked his hand aside with a sweep of her staff.
As he twisted to slash at her, she jumped to
the side. However, her foot slipped on a puddle on the tile floor. She managed
to keep her balance, but the terrorist used this disruption to catch her off
guard. He kicked her with a strong blow to the abdomen.
With the wind knocked out of her, Kayla fell
to her knees and dropped the staff. Her attacker fell on her with the knife,
sending them both to the ground. Kayla, with her back pressed against the hard
floor, barely managed to catch his wrist before the knife could plunge into her
chest.
There was a brief stalemate as the two
combatants strained against each other, neither gaining an advantage. As the
terrorist shifted on top of Kayla, she saw a brief opening and seized it,
kicking him hard in the groin. He grunted in pain and the distraction caused
him to loosen his grip ever so slightly.
In the blink of an eye, Kayla turned the knife
away from herself. Before she realized it, she had plunged it deep into the
terrorist’s eye socket. He shrieked in agony, then collapsed on top of her and
stayed still.
Kayla shoved the now lifeless body off of her.
As she took in the scene of the corpse and the rapidly expanding pool of blood
beneath it, a wave of nausea swept over her. She rushed into the closest stall
and vomited into the toilet.
Despite the life and death nature of the
struggle, Kayla could not believe she had just killed another human being. She
had never considered that she might need to do something like this. Still
feeling queasy, she jolted from her thoughts at the crackle of a radio. Another
terrorist was checking in with the one she had just killed.
Acting before someone else came to
investigate, she removed the bloody mask of the terrorist, hoping that the dark
material hid the gory stains, and paused to look at the face of the man she had
just killed. Laying on the bathroom floor, he looked eerily peaceful, his one
remaining blue eye gazing up at the ceiling. Around his neck, he wore a pendant
featuring a five-pointed star with arcs extending clockwise from each
point.
Fighting against another wave of nausea, she
grabbed the man’s mask, along with the rest of his clothing, and disguised
herself as one of them. Kayla stood taller than average, and she thought the
guise might just fool them long enough to get into a position to handle them.
Grabbing the terrorist’s gun and the bag of chemicals, she walked out of the
bathroom and gave the lead terrorist a wave to signal that everything was fine.
He seemed satisfied and turned away.
Kayla next needed to deal with the attacker on
the second floor. Unless she took him out, he would see any attack against the
one on the ground level. Making her way over to the nearest stairwell, Kayla
passed Olivia as she kept helping the wounded students.
Glancing to make sure that none of the
terrorists looked in her direction, she knelt and whispered into Olivia’s ear,
“Liv, it’s me. I’m going to see what I can do.”
Olivia turned her head to look at Kayla, her
eyes widened in terror. “No, keep your head down. They’ll kill you,” she
gasped.
“I have to take my chances. Keep up the good
work here.”
Climbing the stairs to the next level, she
overheard the other two terrorists talking on the radio. “Looks like the police are starting to
surround the building,” said the first voice.
“Good,” replied the second. “Keep an eye out
for the news trucks. Once there are enough cameras, we start killing these
students.”
“These windows will give them a great view of
the action.”
Kayla slinked her way around the second floor
of the Union, looking for a good angle on the terrorist perched up there. She
found a nook between a coffee table and a plush green armchair where she had a
view of him, as well as the remaining attacker on the ground floor. Since they
could both see and hear each other, she needed to distract them both and occupy
the one on the main level long enough to deal with the enemy on the second
floor.
Looking into her backpack, she found a small
bottle that contained vinegar and another that held bleach. Pouring the vinegar
into the container with the bleach, she twisted the top until it felt just
tight enough to stay affixed. Taking aim near the terrorist on the ground, she
chucked the bottle over the railing.
As expected, the bottle smacking the floor
startled the assailant on the ground level. He kicked the foaming bottle and
looked around for the source. Before he had a chance to spot Kayla, he began to
choke on the invisible chlorine gas leaking from the bottle. Such a small
amount would not kill him but would keep his eyes and lungs burning long enough
to occupy him.
This diversion also attracted the attention of
the gunman on the second floor. He looked increasingly concerned by his
comrade’s coughing and wheezing. Kayla thought about shooting him but didn’t
trust her own ability to hit him.
She seized the moment and sprinted toward him.
Tackling him from behind, she heard his ribs crunch from the impact with the
railing. Without allowing him time to react, she smashed the butt of her gun
against the back of his head and shoved his shoulders over the ledge. His body
tumbled down and crashed onto a table below, where he remained
motionless.
Looking across the Union as she caught her
breath, Kayla saw that the sound of the man falling to the floor had jolted the
remaining terrorist on the ground out of his coughing fit. He glanced up and
spotted Kayla. As she ducked behind the wall, he let off a burst of fire from
his rifle. She heard footsteps as he dashed toward the stairwell. As she
started to move to a better position to ambush the terrorist, the footsteps
stopped abruptly with a pained grunt.
Peering back over the edge, she saw the gunman
sprawled face down on the floor, while Olivia dashed toward him. Kayla
concluded that she must have tripped the terrorist as he ran past her position
where she had been helping the wounded students.
Olivia dove on top of him, landing with her
weight on her left knee, driving it into his back. Gritting his teeth through
the pain, the terrorist pushed himself up, throwing Olivia to the side.
She lay on her side as the terrorist stood up.
With surgical precision, the nursing student drove her foot into his knee. The
joint popped backward with the impact and the man collapsed to the ground. As
he writhed on the ground, Olivia stood up, and with one swift kick to the head,
knocked him unconscious.
With all of the terrorists neutralized, a
strange stillness set over the Union. Kayla pulled off the ski mask she had
taken from the first attacker. Olivia and Kayla looked into each other’s eyes
from across the room and, at the same time, each saw a best friend and a
stranger looking back.
Kayla made her way down the stairs and,
without a word, embraced her friend. They stayed silent for a long moment.
Despite the victory, they both felt like they had lost something.
Finally, Olivia broke the silence. “Let me look
at your shoulder. A bullet or knife must have caught you.”
Kayla looked at her left shoulder and saw a
two-inch gash bleeding into her confiscated jacket. She guessed that the cut
had happened during her fight in the restroom. “Wow, I didn’t even feel it
until you said something.”
Olivia reached into her bag and grabbed a
bottle of antiseptic. “I don’t really believe what just happened, or what we
did.”
“I know,” winced Kayla as the liquid stung her
wound. “I…I killed one of them, in the bathroom. Now that this is over, that’s
all that I can think about. Every time I close my eyes, I see his face in my
mind. Oh shit, I feel like I’m going to vomit again.” She just managed to hold
back the bile rising in her throat.
Olivia looked into her friend’s eyes,
searching for comforting words. However, before she found any, the sound of
smashing glass broke her concentration.
A SWAT team had forced entry to the building
and dashed across the floor to secure the area. Two of the officers surprised
Kayla when they rushed up and forced her to the ground. As they handcuffed her
and stripped her of all of her weapons, she realized that she remained dressed
like one of the terrorists.
“Wait, I’m not with them! I was just trying to
help!” she pleaded.
“That’s not for me to decide. You’re coming
with us,” one of the officers ordered in a gruff voice.
Her head spinning from the events of the
evening, Kayla felt like she was floating as the officers forced her out of the
Union and threw her into a van. She shuddered they slammed the doors shut.
Then, overwhelmed with confusion and emotion, she began to weep.
My Review:
Two college students Kayla Falk and Olivia Bellamy are just
enjoying life and their last of year of college just waiting for graduation
when they can start their new careers and lives. But before they graduate their
school is attacked by terrorist. Kayla and Olivia single handily take the
terrorist down. Afterwards they are approached by a man from the government a
Mr. Hightower trying to recruit them to work for him to help take down Isis or
at least some of their people but Kayla and Olivia turn him down fighting
terrorist is not for them. But when they strike again Kayla and Olivia decide
to take Mr. Hightower up on his offer.
So after long and hard work Kayla and Olivia are trained to
fight Isis and go deep undercover in Al-Raqqah, the capital of ISIS, in Syria. Kayla
and Olivia single handily kill lots of Isis soldiers on patrol around the city;
take out lots of their facilities and free captives. They both know if they are
ever caught and their identity’s as women are discovered they will surfer badly
before death.
The Azrael Initiative was well written and thought out novel
one which I enjoyed tremendously. I really enjoyed following Kayla and Olivia
on their journey through Al-Raqqah and so hope to follow them on their next
adventure where ever that may take them. Kayla and Olivia are tough very tough
girls who are not afraid to stand up and fight. Kayla is very strong woman who
can take a lot and keep on ticking. If you love a good thriller with a lot of
fighting then you are going to love Kayla and Olivia’s story The Azrael
Initiative.
K
Hanson is a new author and is currently working on launching his
debut novel, The Azrael Initiative, which features two young women
being thrown into the fight against ISIS. He is also working on Storm
Raven, the first book in a new fantasy series.
K
lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he works as a software
developer. In his spare time, when he isn’t writing, he enjoys
reading, working out, playing video games, and spending time with his
wonderful girlfriend, Bobbi.
Some
of his favorite authors are Tom Clancy, George R. R. Martin, and
Sarah Maas.
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