**** Ancient cultures on continents separated by thousands of miles simultaneously developed identical technologies thousands of years ago despite never having encountered each other. Their legends contain near-identical descriptions of fiery objects that arrived from the sky, of wise beings that brought them knowledge, and of a great flood that destroyed their cities long, long ago. Modern archaeology dismisses these legends as myths. Ethan Warner knows better.
** Peru, 1571: **On a mountain high in the Andes in the last days of the Inca Empire, six children are ritually sacrificed to the Inca God Inti. Entombed in the icy wastes, they have lain awaiting discovery for centuries. They are remarkable for one reason: their skulls are elongated almost beyond recognition. In 1914, intrepid American explorer Hiram Bingham III discovers the lost Inca citadel of Macchu Picchu , and in doing so starts a race to discover one of the greatest secrets mankind has ever knownβ¦
Present day: Former US Marine and investigative journalist Ethan Warner has shunned civilization after five investigations with the Defense Intelligence Agency. Living alone in the wilderness, he is tracked down by Dr Lucy Morgan, a scientist who once found the seven thousand year-old remains of an extra-terrestrial species entombed deep in the deserts of Israel. She brings ominous news: there are more remains being found, and there are people willing to kill to obtain them.
Hurled into a global conspiracy that will take them from the deep waters of the East China Sea to the sweltering jungles of Cambodia, from the deserts of Egypt to the soaring heights of the Andes mountains, Ethan and Lucy must locate and excavate the remains of ancient people whose DNA carries both a message and a cure for a disease born of a species not of this Earth, and in doing so save the life of one young child and change the course of human historyβ¦