SYNOPSIS:
In the depths of the Vatican Secret Archives an ancient papyrus scroll is discovered, an elaborate and detailed diary written in complex coded Arabic. This scroll promptly goes missing as, in London, England, a historian working at the British Museum is framed for the robber and mishandling of an Egyptian artifact the man never knew existed. Investigations into these two mysterious events uncovers an elaborate treasure-hunt for a prize organizations, governments, religions and individuals had warred over for millennia: the most prized possessions of the Royal Library of Alexandria.
CHAPTER ONE: 55 B.C.E, Alexandria, Egypt. The sparkling blue waters of the Mediterranean spread out before him, the brisk coastal breeze tugging at his thick beard. An exhausted young man stood next to him, bent over double, wheezing, a hastily folded piece of papyrus gripped in his sun-tanned hands. Abdul-Aziz Hakim smiled inwardly as he snatched the letter from the courier, musing over the local boy's inexperience and remembering a time when he suffered from such ignorance. Unfolding the creased papyrus, Hakim scanned through the intricately written lines of Greek text; a scholar's writing.
This assignment was particularly important, according to the fatigued courier. 'They' desperately required his assistance.
They...
Hakim had done work for the Library officials before, and he knew the secrets these men guarded so closely as well as the lines on his very own palm.
