📖First Chapter: Promised Kingdom Book 2 of Stele Prophecy Pentalogy by Randy C. Dockens #firstchapter

Title: Promised Kingdom (Stele Prophecy Pentalogy Book 2)

Author: Randy C. Dockens

Publisher: Carpenter’s Son Publishing

Publication Date: March 19, 2019

Pages: 379

Genre: Christian Fiction

As Edvin discovers his sister-in-law losing her unborn baby and his girlfriend dying from plane crash injuries, he learns the exact same experience is happening to others around the globe.

Edvin’s deepest desires crumble before him; wanting to get into Swedish Special Forces and marry the girl of his dreams. All that seems hopeless now amid all the Revelation times chaos happening around him. A new type of leader emerges who has great personal skills and ideas in how to bring the world together again, better than ever. Edvin’s future begins to look up as he is recruited into the new elite world forces unit under his leader and becomes his trusted ally. Edvin even has a romantic encounter again, which turns serious but must remain hidden as he finds she is part of a targeted group of people this new leader turns against. Edvin finds his new leader darker in personality than he realized and soon finds himself on this leader’s enemy list. Can Edvin, his family, and friends survive through all the continuing chaos happening around them and against this leader he once called a friend? Or will heartache find him once again?

Promised Kingdom, the first prequel to Mercy of the Iron Scepter, is the second book of a new biblical end times prophecy series entitled Stele Prophecy Pentalogy by futuristic fiction author Randy C. Dockens. This is not your typical speculative fiction novel about Christian end times fiction as described in Revelation depicting a future home as it also combines other Bible prophecies presenting a cohesive chronological view of biblical prophecy that feels realistic in its presentation.

Promised Kingdom is available at Amazon.

 First Chapter:

The situation seemed impossible.

Edvin pressed his head and back against the cement column. Its coolness sent relief to his sweaty back. He looked up and tried to calm his breathing. The warehouse had windows near the ceiling, but they were all closed. Just my luck.

He wiped his forehead and peeked at the gunman attempting to kill him.

In Arabic, Edvin replied, “You don’t have to do this, Raheeb. I’m sure we can come to an agreement.”

“I’m willing to die. Are you?” the gunman said.

Edvin closed his eyes and shook his head lightly. No. He wasn’t willing to die. Edvin Isakson, how did you get yourself in this mess? There has to be a way out of this.

The mission seemed simple enough: save the girl. Well, he reminded himself, the original assignment was to secure the needed information. He had passed the first test and discovered the girl was the needed information. The information existed only in her head. Now he had to save her or the mission would be completely blown.

“I have the grenade and I’m willing to use it,” Raheeb said. “It’s either you or oblivion.”

Think, Edvin, think. He quickly glanced around the column. Raheeb had the woman as a human shield with a gun to her head and his other arm around her with a pin-pulled grenade.

He quickly looked around to see what he might be able to use. It looked like a warehouse of rejected stuff. Nothing useful seemed close at hand. To his left a steel filing cabinet stood on a platform with casters. Farther over lay an old iron bathtub. In front of it were a row of doors with vents on the bottom. Nothing else looked close enough to access. What could he do with those? Even MacGyver would be challenged with that list. If he only had more time to think.

“Can we talk about this?” Edvin asked. “Surely we can come up with a deal we can both accept.”

“You’re out of deals,” Raheeb said. “You come out, I shoot you. If you don’t come out, I blow all of us up. Which of those deals do you want?”

Lousy deals. Edvin really needed to change the odds. He looked at his gun—only one bullet left. Raheeb should have about six left. Again, not good odds. He first needed to get Raheeb to discharge all his bullets, but not get himself shot in the process. He then needed to kill Raheeb and save the girl. If Raheeb escaped and gave away his position, the mission would be a bust.

He looked around again. For some reason, which he couldn’t understand, a plan suddenly popped into his mind. A nutty plan, it seemed to him, but anything was worth trying at this point.

He dove and rolled behind the filing cabinet, only a few feet away. The action apparently took Raheeb off guard because he fired and missed. OK, one down. Five to go. Edvin took off his boots. He didn’t know if it would work, but he gave a quick look over the top of the cabinet and threw his boot at Raheeb. He wanted to make Raheeb mad enough to fire his gun, but not drop the grenade. His boot hit the girl instead. She screamed. Raheeb discharged his gun. Success. Thankfully, with Raheeb holding the girl, he did not aim well. 

Would this guy continue to fall for this? This time he aimed from the side with his other boot and almost hit Raheeb in the head. This apparently made Raheeb even more angry and he discharged twice more. One went through the top of the filing cabinet near his head. Edvin ducked by reflex, even though it was actually too late at that point. But a miss was a miss. OK, two more to go.

Edvin walked behind the cabinet and rolled it over to the doors. This elicited another bullet. The cabinet stopped the bullet, but his thumb took some of the force of impact. He shook his hand fiercely because of the pain. His thumb immediately began to swell. But if that was the worst he got from this exchange, he would be fine. Only one shot to go.

Edvin examined the doors. Not all had a vent on the bottom. He kicked the first door over and the captor took another shot and nearly hit his foot. Edvin fell but quickly scurried to safety behind the cabinet, now breathing hard. Before he had time to think, he grabbed the second door and turned it upside down to place the vent on top. The captor shot again, and the bullet went through the door vent. Wait! That was seven. Did I miscount? At any rate, Raheeb should be out of bullets now.

Edvin quickly took off his shirt, split it in two down the back, tied one piece to the doorknob, the other to the vent of the door, and leaned the door on the end of the tub. One final piece of the plan was left. He found a brick and a small clay pot under the tub. He hurriedly took off his pants and put a knot in the end of each leg. He put the brick down one leg and the clay pot down the other, then put another knot in each leg. He was glad he decided to wear boxers today.

Edvin knew he had to now get the captor to drop the grenade. He was counting on Raheeb bluffing. He noticed Raheeb sweating too much—too much for a guy already resigned to die no matter what. He felt sure if Raheeb saw the grenade on the floor, a flight response would kick in. He knew with only one bullet left, he had to make it count.

Edvin looked over the filing cabinet. “You have no more bullets. But I do. This is your last chance to give up.”

“Your bullets are no match for my grenade! Throw down your gun, or it’s over for all of us!”

Edvin tried to envision the best way to manage this. Unfortunately, the grenade remained in the guy’s left hand with his left arm wrapped around the girl. Shooting the guy’s elbow to make him drop the grenade seemed the best plan. He hoped that would cause the guy to then run and try to escape. He could think of no better plan.

Edvin aimed and took the shot. The bullet grazed the captor’s arm just above the elbow. The grenade dropped to the floor as the guy grabbed his arm, yelling in pain while letting the girl go. She screamed. Raheeb’s eyes widened. He looked at Edvin, at the grenade, and then bolted for the door holding his arm.

Edvin knew he only had about ten seconds to finish his plan. He ran to the grenade and stuffed it in his pants pocket. Then, like an Aborigine hurling a bola at prey, he hurled the pants, letting them fly toward Raheeb. Edvin wasn’t sure if it would work like a real bola, but it was his only hope . . . 

It worked well enough. One of the pant legs wrapped around Raheeb’s foot as he fled, and the other pant leg hit the other foot, causing him to stumble, trip, and fall.

Wasting no time, Edvin grabbed the girl, pulled her quickly to the bathtub, pulled her inside with him, and grabbed his shirt, causing the door to fall on top of them just as the grenade went off. Edvin held tightly to the arms of the shirt to hold the door in place. The grenade’s blast caused the steel cabinet to forcefully hit the tub and deflect some of the blast.

And then . . . sirens and a mechanical voice over a loud speaker. “Simulation over. Simulation over.” He pushed to get the door off the tub so he and Ranata could climb out. The first thing he saw was Captain Andreasson standing over him. He expected a “congratulations,” or something of the kind, but her expression made it clear that wasn’t forthcoming.

“So, do you do all your operations without clothes?”

Edvin gave a weak smile. “I do my best operations that way. Right, Ranata?”

Andreasson rolled her eyes and walked away.

“One date does not an ‘operation’ make,” Ranata grunted as she climbed out of the tub, rubbing the back of her head. “You could’ve broken my neck.” She sounded irritated. “And you can refer to me as Corporal Edstrom, thank you.”

“Well, excuse me for saving your life.”

Saeed Amari, the former Raheeb, came over and helped Edvin from the tub. He was covered in yellow die, indicating the grenade had done its dirty work.

“Congratulations, Isakson. I think you finally beat the system. However, I for once would like to be the good guy. Just because I’m of Iranian descent doesn’t mean I have to play the terrorist all the time.”

“But you look so good in yellow.” Edvin tried to look serious.

Saeed laughed. “Not quite as good as you in white skivvies.”

Edvin shrugged. “A treat for Ranata.”

At that, Ranata walked off with a huge eyeroll and her arms raised in frustration. Saeed and Edvin laughed even more.

“Sorry about your arm, Amari.”

“Oh, it will smart for a while, but no major damage. I’ve had worse paintball injuries.” Then, pointing his finger into Edvin’s chest, he said, “But you do owe me—big time.”

Edvin smiled, but seeing Sergeant Larsson in the distance in heated discussion with Captain Andreasson caused his smile to vanish. “Well, I don’t think Larsson will be pleased with my accomplishment,” Edvin said.

“Likely jealous. He now has to come up with another program. He’s used the same program for over five years. I think he thought it unsolvable. Get prepared. I bet he’s going to make you out to be the bad guy. He’s not going to admit his defeat without a fight.”

“Well, I don’t see why I should get slammed for succeeding. Shouldn’t that help instead of hurt my chances to qualify for Swedish Special Forces?”

“Stay calm, Isakson. Here comes Andreasson.”

“Debriefing in fifteen minutes,” she said, sounding gruff. Captain Andreasson looked him up and down. “Seeing how you’re dressed, you can’t afford any more debriefing.”

Edvin laughed, but saw the captain didn’t crack a smile. Her look remained stern. He turned somber quickly.

“I hope you can find something appropriate to wear between now and then.”

“Yes, sir. Right away, sir.”

Edvin headed out, giving a quick look at Saeed, who flashed a grimace. Exactly. This was not off to a good start. He hoped this didn’t keep him from getting into Special Forces.

About the Author:

Dr. Randy C. Dockens has a fascination with science and with the Bible, holds Ph.D. degrees in both areas, and is a man not only of faith and science, but also of creativity. He believes that faith and science go hand in hand without being enemies of each other.

After completing his bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Auburn University he went on to graduate school at Auburn and completed his first doctorate degree in Pharmaceutics. He began his scientific career as a pharmacokinetic reviewer for the Food and Drug Administration and later joined a leading pharmaceutical company as a pharmacokineticist, which is a scientist who analyzes how the human body affects drugs after they have been administered (i.e, absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and excreted).

Through the years, he has worked on potential medicines within several disease areas, including cardiovascular, fibrosis, and immunoscience to seek and develop new and novel medicines in these therapy areas.

He has also had his attention on the academic study of the Bible. He earned a second doctorate in Biblical Prophecy from Louisiana Baptist University after receiving a master’s degree in Jewish Studies from the Internet Bible Institute under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Congdon.

Randy has recently retired from his pharmaceutical career and is spending even more time on his writing efforts. He has written several books that span dystopian (The Coded Message Trilogy), end-time prophecy (Stele Prophecy Pentalogy), science fiction (Erabon Prophecy Trilogy), and uniquely told Bible stories (The Adversary Chronicles). All his books, while fun to read, are futuristic, filled with science to give them an authentic feel, have a science fiction feel to them, and allows one to learn some aspect of Biblical truth one may not have thought about before. This is all done in a fast-paced action format that is both entertaining and provides a fun read for his readers.

He has also written some nonfiction books as well. One is to show how all humans are connected from God’s viewpoint by looking at biblical prophecy (Why is a Gentile World Tied to a Jewish Timeline?: The Question Everyone Should Ask). This book shows how all scripture is connected and inclusive of everyone. In addition, he and his editor have written two books about writing. The first is on writing techniques themselves and is entitled Mastering the ABCs of Excellent Writing: Creating Vivid and Colorful Stories that Readers Want to Read. This book not only addresses the techniques of writing, but what makes writing unique to each author. It conveys not only how to better hone one’s craft of writing but also the brand an author wants to portray. This helps an author make their writing unique as well as captivating for his/her audience. The second is a companion book to this one entitled Mastering the ABCs of Excellent Self-Editing: Framing Your Colorful Masterpiece to Keep Readers Engaged in Your Story. This is best used in conjunction with the first one. Yet, self-editing, though intricately connected to writing, is a distinct event. The better the quality of a writer’s draft manuscript when it is delivered to one’s editor, the higher the final quality of the manuscript will be for readers, and that is extremely important.

Dr Dockens is still not done. He has other creative ideas he is bringing forward as he is currently working on two new futuristic series. So, stay turned!

Website ➜ https://www.randydockens.com/
X ➜ https://x.com/RandyCDockens
Facebook ➜ www.facebook.com/Randy.C.Dockens
Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/randydockens
Goodreads ➜ https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16453941

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