But the more he learns about the ancient conspiracy surrounding the Knights Templar, the more he realizes that even more than lives are at stake. Welcome or not, Cotton seeks to even the odds in the perilous race. Competing for the historic prize–and desperate for the crucial information Stephanie possesses–is Raymond de Roquefort, a shadowy zealot with an army of assassins at his command. 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. It begins with a violent robbery attempt on Cotton’s former supervisor, Stephanie Nelle, who’s far from home on a mission that has nothing to do with national security. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instincts–and plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he’d left behind. But now two forces vying for the treasure have learned that it is not at all what they thought it was–and its true nature could change the modern world.Ĭotton Malone, one-time top operative for the U.S. until the Inquisition, when they were wiped from the face of the earth, their hidden riches lost. Competing for the historic prize and desperate for the crucial information Stephanie possesses is Raymond de Roquefort, a shadowy zealot with an army of assassins at his command.The ancient order of the Knights Templar possessed untold wealth and absolute power over kings and popes.

It begins with a violent robbery attempt on Cotton's former supervisor, Stephanie Nelle, whos far from home on a mission that has nothing to do with national security. Justice Department, is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen when an unexpected call to action reawakens his hair-trigger instincts and plunges him back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he'd left behind.

Cotton Malone, one-time top operative for the U.S.

The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry