Crucible

By Sterritt Armstrong

In the grand tradition of Victorian classics by Jules Verne and Arthur Conan Doyle, Sterritt Armstrong presents CRUCIBLE. Conceived as a "boy's own" thriller, but suitable for readers of all ages, this epic tale weaves military adventure, science fiction and gothic horror with literary subtlety.In January 2015, Dr. Adriane Scott is in an Army helicopter, flying through Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor towards a secret government facility in the Pamir Mountains. Accompanied by geologist Jack Galloway, security contractor Craig Kutcher, and a team of Navy SEALs assigned to protect her, Adriane has her mission to survey the site disarrayed when Chinese spies and the Taliban shoot down the helicopter. Thus begins a race overland to the Site Cobalt facility. The crash survivors--Adriane, Jack, Kutcher and the remaining SEALs, Ted Smith and Balduino Aquino--make a three-day journey fraught with peril and intrigue through the most rugged and majestic terrain on the planet. Upon arrival at Cobalt, they learn the true reason for America's extended presence in Afghanistan: an organic fluid that wells up from deep within the earth, which has transformed a tribe of warriors descended from Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan. The six-person team at Cobalt has been studying the tribe and their special fluid, seeking ways to militarize its physiological effects.But the project leader, Dr. June Westphal, is increasingly unstable; Adriane learns that she has been lured to Cobalt under false pretense to replace Westphal, who perceives the threat and takes action to stop it. As this isolated system disintegrates, Adriane must confront her shared, shocking past with Westphal. Then, under attack from the fearsome warriors, Adriane and her new friends must use their wits, bravery and respective strengths to escape certain death. But not everyone makes it home...Featuring precise and engrossing verisimilitude, CRUCIBLE is a layered and tense emotional thriller in praise of the human spirit that will have you turning pages frantically to the end.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1688556699
• ISBN13: 9781688556690
• Release Date: August 2019
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 314 Pages
• Weight: 0.91 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.8" x 5.0"