Free Shades of Blood and Darkness (Templar Chronicles Missions eNovella #1) by Joseph Nassise

The Lear jet banked suddenly, the abrupt action jolting Cade Williams from his uneasy sleep. Glancing out his window, he could see the lights of the city far off to the left and knew the pilot must be starting his preparations for landing. That meant Cade had another twenty minutes or so before he and his team would be on the ground and in the thick of things.
    Like most of the Order's equipment, the interior of the aircraft was spartan. Gone were the leather seats and the recessed mini bars, the inflight entertainment centers and the four star meals. Only that which was functional and necessary had been left in place. Thankfully that included the privacy curtain that separated the rear compartment where Cade was sitting from the main cabin just ahead.
    Looking past the curtain, he could see his executive officer, Sergeant Matthew Riley seated about halfway up center aisle in the main cabin. As Cade looked on his teammate stripped the Mossberg combat shotgun he held in his hands his weapon and began cleaning it with deft movements that came with long familiarity. The voice of O'Malley, Cade's first drill instructor at the academy, echoed in his head at the sight, "If you have no other assignment, see to your weapons." It was advice he had heeded during his fifteen-year career with the Special Tactics and Operations team of the Boston Police Department and had brought with him when he'd been recruited into the Order. He had enforced that unwritten rule on his squad from the very first day and now, five years later, it was as habitual to them as breathing. Cade knew without looking that their other team member, Sergeant Nick Olsen, would be in the seat opposite Riley, doing the same thing to his Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun.
    Having a perfectly operational weapon might just make the difference between life and death for any of them, particularly on this run, Cade thought to himself with some resignation. They had been asked to take the assignment at the last minute, without any advanced preparation or intelligence, and that was not the way Cade liked to operate. The quick briefing they’d been given hadn’t done anything to inspire confidence, either.
    Two months ago, the local Catholic diocese had requested help in dealing with a particularly violent blood cult. The parish pastor had catalogued a number of problems ranging from intimidation of his parishioners to the sudden disappearance of many of the street people who frequented the soup kitchen. He was convinced that there was evil afoot and believed the local authorities had neither the desire nor the manpower to handle the situation properly. His request for assistance had gone all the way up the church hierarchy to the Vatican itself and had been passed to the Order for investigation.
    That was what the Order did, after all.
    Contrary to popular belief, the Holy Order of the Poor Knights of Christ of the Temple of Solomon, or the Knight Templars as they are more commonly known, were not destroyed by the King of France when he burned Grand Master Jacques De Molay at the stake in 1314 for heresy. Following Molay's death, the Order had gone underground, hiding its wealth, disguising its power and managing to remain a viable independent entity right up through the end of the First World War. A treaty with Pius XI was followed by a reversal of their excommunication, and the Templars were reborn as a secret military arm of the Vatican. Their mission: to defend mankind against the evils that walked in the world, unnoticed in a society that was preoccupied with science and that scoffed at superstition and myth, regardless of the truths they might contain.
    Those in command of the Order had agreed that the situation merited a closer look. They had sent a team in, led by a veteran Knight Captain, and instructed them to look into the situation and assist the parish in whatever manner they found necessary.
    Three weeks after their arrival, the team had abruptly