Templars

After a lifetime on the front lines, Army Ranger John Holliday has resigned himself to ending his career teaching at West Point. But when his uncle passes away, Holliday discovers a mysterious medieval sword---wrapped in Adolf Hitler's personal battle standard. Then someone burns down his uncle's house in an attempt to retrieve the sword, and Holliday realizes that he's being drawn into a war that has been fought for centuries.

Retired Army Ranger John Holliday has reluctantly settled into his teaching position at West Point, when young Israeli archaeologist Rafi Wanounou comes to him with desperate news. Holliday's niece - and Rafi's fiance - Peggy has been kidnapped while photographing the excavation of an ancient tomb in Egypt. Her captors are known as the Brotherhood of the Temple of Isis - murderous fanatics who worship a dead god. Holliday sets out with Rafi to find the only family he has left.

In the 14th century, Templar knight Jean de Saint-Clair was tasked with piloting the order's treasure-laden fleets off the coast of France. To this end, he used a Jacob's Staff, a world-changing nautical instrument supposedly developed in his own time. Retired Army Ranger John Holliday knows better, for he possesses a similar instrument - one found in the hands of a four-thousand-year-old Egyptian mummy.

In Rome, the assassination of the Pope on Christmas Day sets off a massive investigation that stretches across the globe. But behind the veil of Rex Deus - the Templar cabal that silently wields power in the twenty-first century - the plot has only just begun. When retired Army Ranger Lt. Col. John Holliday uncovers the true motive behind the pontiff's murder, he must unravel a deadly design to extend the Templar influence to the highest levels of power.