The Templar Legacy

Prior to the Inquisition, when they were exterminated and their secret treasure was destroyed, the ancient order of the Knights Templar had immense wealth and total authority over monarchs and popes. However, the treasure is not what the two factions fighting for it first believed, and its actual nature has the potential to drastically alter the contemporary world.

An unexpected call to action reawakens Cotton Malone, a former top operator for the US Justice Department, and drags him back into the world of cloak and dagger that he thought he had left behind. Cotton is enjoying his tranquil new life as an old book merchant in Copenhagen.

The story starts with a brutal robbery attempt on Stephanie Nelle, Cotton's former boss, who is traveling far from home on an unrelated job. Equipped with crucial hints for a sequence of antiquated riddles dispersed throughout Europe, she intends to unravel a riddle that has captivated academics and seekers of wealth for millennia by discovering the fabled hoard of riches and taboo knowledge believed to have vanished irrevocably with the destruction of the Knights Templar order in the fourteenth century. She's not alone, however. The mysterious fanatic Raymond de Roquefort, who is in competition for the historic award and is determined to get the vital information Stephanie has, is in charge of an army of assassins.

Cotton aims to level the playing field in the dangerous race, welcome or not. But the more he discovers about the long-standing plot involving the Templars, the more he understands that there's more at risk than just lives. A devastating discovery that has the potential to upend civilization and, in the wrong hands, bring it to its knees is hidden at the end of a deadly game of conquest that is riddled with deceit, intrigue, and a hunger for power.