Raymond Khoury

On a typical Baghdad day in April of 2003, elite elements of the First Cavalry Division stealthily surround their objective--the cement compound of a mysterious Westerner that terrified Iraqis call Hakeem, "The Doctor." After neutralizing fierce resistance and seizing the compound, U.S. troops find haunting evidence of unspeakable experimentation--but no sign of the ghastly doctor himself.

"Istanbul, 1683: Mehmed IV, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, is preparing to lay siege to Vienna, capital of the Holy Roman Empire, when a mysterious visitor arrives in his bedroom--naked, covered in strange tattoos--to deliver a dangerous, world-changing message. Paris, 2017: Ottoman flags have been flying over the great city for three hundred years, ever since its fall--along with all of Europe--to the empire's all-conquering army. Notre Dame has been...

What if there was an herb, previously lost to history in the jungles of Central America, capable of inducing an experience so momentous it might shake the very foundations of Western civilization? What if powerful forces on both sides of the law got wind of that herb, and launched a violent, uncompromising pursuit to be the first to exploit it? And what if FBI agent Sean Reilly and his girlfriend, Tess Chaykin, were, unknowingly, the only two people...

Acre, 1291. The last Crusader city in the Holy Land is about to fall. Two Knights Templar, obeying the grandmaster's orders, manage to escape the invading Muslim army on the order's last ship. New York City, nowadays. During the unveiling of an exhibition of some of the Vatican's treasures, four men disguised as Templars attack the Metropolitan Museum and steal several artefacts, including a centuries-old decoder – a loss that horrifies the Church....

Reilly has tracked down the fake Professor Sharafi to Turkey. But the man is crafty, and not only does he manage to escape, he also recaptures Tess along the way. A chase begins across the hills of Cappadocia, with the FBI agent hunting down his enemy while Tess, in order to survive, does her best to follow the trail of Knight Templar Conrad and the mysterious treasure he was protecting – the one everyone thought was a threat to all of Christianity......

After being kidnapped by Vance and subsequently escaping, Tess is now officially part of the investigative team alongside Agent Reilly. But despite the constant danger of the lurking assassins who have already nearly killed her once, the young woman refuses to play a passive role. Her research will take her far from New York, under the protection of Sean Reilly – who is about to face a terrible crisis of faith.

In this gripping thriller, a scientific expedition in Antarctica stops for a live news feed. As the CNN journalist Gracie Logan begins her report, a massive, shimmering sphere of light suddenly appears in the sky, enveloping the ship in luminous white light before disappearing as mysteriously as it arrived--the entire event witnessed by an incredulous world audience. Meanwhile, a monk in Egypt experiences visions that seemed connected, and back in...