"Dan Brown fans will want to check this one out" (Publishers
Weekly): The Ghent Altarpiece is the most violated work of art in the
world. Thirteen times it has been vandalized, dismantled, or stolen.
Why? What secrets does it hold?
Enter UNESCO investigator, Nicholas Lee, who works for the United
Nations' Cultural Liaison and Investigative Office (CLIO). Nick's job is
to protect the world's cultural artifacts--anything and everything from
countless lesser-known objects to national treasures.
When Nick travels to Belgium for a visit with a woman from his past, he
unwittingly stumbles on the trail of a legendary panel from the Ghent
Altarpiece, stolen in 1934 under cover of night and never seen since.
Soon Nick is plunged into a bitter conflict, one that has been simmering
for nearly two thousand years. On one side is the Maidens of
Saint-Michael, *les Vautours--*the Vultures--a secret order of nuns and
the guardians of a great truth. Pitted against them is the Vatican,
which has wanted for centuries to both find and possess what the nuns
guard. Because of Nick the maidens have finally been exposed, their
secret placed in dire jeopardy--a vulnerability that the Vatican swiftly
moves to exploit utilizing an ambitious cardinal and a corrupt
archbishop, both with agendas of their own.
From the tranquil canals of Ghent, to the towering bastions of
Carcassonne, and finally into an ancient abbey high in the French
Pyrenees, Nick Lee must confront a modern-day religious crusade intent
on eliminating a shocking truth from humanity's past. Success or
failure--life and death--all turn on the Omega Factor.
