James Rollins - Sigma Force 06 - The Doomsday Key

The Spiral and the Cross

Gunfire woke Jason Gorman from a bone-deep sleep. It took

He needed more speed.

As Lieutenant Rachel Verona stepped out of the hospital and

Monk bounced his baby girl on his knee. Penelope squealed,

The symbols not in the database of any known terrorist

Where was she?

Ivar Karlsen watched the storm building across the fjord. He

They had less than a minute. The unexpected guests that

Gray leaned hard over the handlebars. Rachel hugged tight to

Painter readied for the battle to come. He sat at

Ivar Karlsen pulled on the heavy oak door, its planks

Fire and Ice

It seemed impossible that murder could be traced back to

The luncheon ended with a warning.

Gray eyed his transportation doubtfully.

Monk strode briskly across the research park. Under his heavy

As the forest burned, Gray clutched the lead rope of

Krista had not slept.

Seeds of Destruction

The sun remained low in the sky as the private

Gray rolled their SUV down the long hill toward the

Monk sent a silent prayer of thanks to the engineers

As Gray prepared to descend into the crypt, the true

The warhead detonated on schedule.

Rachel almost dropped Seichan when she saw Gray fall from

Monk lay flat across the roof of the Sno-Cat as

Gray lounged in a steaming tub of hot water.

Krista paced the length of the ice-cold warehouse on the

The Dark Madonna

Painter watched the Svalbard Archipelago vanish behind them as the

A library was an unlikely spot to plan a prison

Gray knew they were in trouble.

Krista stalked across the cloisters garden. The day had turned

Are you sure this will blow that secret passage open?

Krista appreciated the shocked looks on their faces. Especially the

They all met at Senator Gormans office on Capitol Hill.

Painter headed down the last flight of stairs to the

Truth or Fiction

N ORTHERN E UROPE AND A RTIC C IRCLE

During the eleventh century, King William of England commissioned a comprehensive survey of his kingdom. The results were recorded in a great volume titled the Domesday Book. It is one of the most detailed accounts of medieval life during that time. Most historians accept that this grand accounting was done as a means to gather a proper tax from the populace, though this is not certain. Many mysteries still surround this survey, like why it was ordered so swiftly and why some towns were inexplicably marked with a single word in Latin meaning wasted. Furthermore, the strangeness of this census and its exacting detail earned the tome a disturbing nickname by the people of its time. It became known as the Doomsday Book.

During the twelfth century, an Irish Catholic priest named Mel Medc, who would eventually be named Saint Malachy, had a vision while on a pilgrimage to Rome. In that ecstatic trance, he was given knowledge of all the popes who would come until the end of the world. This grand accountinga cryptic description of 112 popeswas recorded and safeguarded in the Vatican archives, but the book vanished, only to resurface again during the sixteenth century. Some historians believe that this recovered book was most likely a forgery. Either way, over the intervening centuries, the descriptions of each pope in that book have proved to be oddly accurateup to and including the current head of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI. In Saint Malachys prophecy, the current pope is listed as De Gloria Olivae, the Glory of the Olives. And the Benedictine order, from which the pope took his name, does indeed bear the olive branch as its symbol. But most disturbing of all, Pope Benedict XVI is the 111th pope. And according to this oddly accurate prophecy, the world ends with the very next one.

During the years 2006 to 2008, one-third of all honeybees in the United States (and much of Europe and Canada) vanished. Thriving hives were suddenly found empty, as if the bees simply flew away and never returned. The condition earned the name Colony Collapse Disorder. This massive and mysterious loss generated sensational headlines and fears. So what truly happened to the bees?

Within the pages of this novel lies an answerMost frightening of all, its true.

Spring, 1086
England

The ravens were the first sign.

As the horse-drawn wagon traveled down the rutted track between rolling fields of barley, a flock of ravens rose up in a black wash. They hurled themselves into the blue of the morning and swept high in a panicked rout, but this was more than the usual startled flight. The ravens wheeled and swooped, tumbled and flapped. Over the road, they crashed into each other and rained down out of the skies. Small bodies struck the road, breaking wing and beak. They twitched in the ruts. Wings fluttered weakly.

But most disturbing was the silence of it all.

No caws, no screams.

Just the frantic beat of wingthen the soft impact of feathered bodies on the hard dirt and broken stone.

The wagons driver crossed himself and slowed the cart. His heavy-lidded eyes watched the skies. The horse tossed its head and huffed into the chill of the morning.

Keep going, said the traveler sharing the wagon. Martin Borr was the youngest of the royal coroners, ordered here upon a secret edict from King William himself.

As Martin huddled deeper into his heavy cloak, he remembered the note secured by wax and imprinted by the great royal seal. Burdened by the cost of war, King William had sent scores of royal commissioners out into the countryside to amass a great accounting of the lands and properties of his kingdom. The immense tally was being recorded in a mammoth volume called the Domesday Book, collected together by a single scholar and written in a cryptic form of Latin. The accounting was all done as a means of measuring the proper tax owed to the crown.

Or so it was said.

Some grew to suspect there was another reason for such a grand survey of all the lands. They compared the book to the Bibles description of the Last Judgment, where God kept an accounting of all mankinds deeds in the Book of Life. Whispers and rumors began calling the result of this great survey the Doomsday Book .