Raymond Khoury

In a hail of fire and flashing sword, as the burning city of Acre falls from the hands of the West in 1291, a young Templar knight, his mentor, and a handful of others escape to the sea carrying a mysterious chest entrusted to them by the Order's dying Grand Master. The ship vanishes without a trace ... In present day Manhattan, four masked horsemen dressed as Templar Knights emerge from Central Park and ride up the Fifth Avenue steps of the Metropolitan...

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...

Naples, 1750. Three men with swords burst into the palazzo of a marquis in search of a secret. Accused of being an imposter, the false marquis escapes over the rooftops. Baghdad, 2003. An army unit on a routine mission discovers a state-of-the-art lab where dozens have died in gruesome experiments. The scientist escapes, leaving a puzzling clue behind: a symbol of a snake feeding on its own tail. As the power of the symbol is revealed, one unsuspecting...