โ Scribed by Steve Berry
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
The ancient order of the Knights Templar possessed untold wealth and absolute power over kings and popes . . . until the Inquisition, when they were wiped from the face of the earth, their hidden riches lost. But now two forces vying for the treasure have learned that it is not at all what they thought it wasโand its true nature could change the modern world.
Cotton Malone, onetime top operative for the U.S. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instinctsโand plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought heโd left behind.
It begins with a violent robbery attempt on Cottonโs former supervisor, Stephanie Nelle, whoโs far from home on a mission that has nothing to do with national security. Armed with vital clues to a series of centuries-old puzzles scattered across Europe, she means to crack a mystery that has tantalized scholars and fortune hunters through the ages by finding the legendary cache of wealth and forbidden knowledge thought to have been lost forever when the order of the Knights Templar was exterminated in the fourteenth century. But sheโs not alone. Competing for the historic prizeโand desperate for the crucial information Stephanie possessesโis Raymond de Roquefort, a shadowy zealot with an army of assassins at his command.
At the end of a lethal game of conquest, rife with intrigue, treachery, and craven lust for power, lies a shattering discovery that could rock the civilized worldโand, in the wrong hands, bring it to its knees.
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SUMMARY: The ancient order of the Knights Templar possessed untold wealth and absolute power over kings and popes . . . until the Inquisition, when they were wiped from the face of the earth, their hidden riches lost. But now two forces vying for the treasure have learned that it is not at all what
The ancient order of the Knights Templar possessed untold wealth and absolute power over kings and popes...until the Inquisition, when the Knights were wiped from the face of the earth, their riches left hidden โ forever? Cotton Malone is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in