The Sacred Vault

Book excerpt: A DARING HEIST. A PRICELESS ARTIFACT. A SECRET LOCKED SAFELY AWAY—UNTIL NOW. When Michelangelo’s David is stolen from its museum in Florence, it’s only the latest in a series of audacious raids on the world’s greatest treasures. But American archaeologist Nina Wilde and her husband, ex-mercenary Eddie Chase, discover the raiders’ ultimate target when the Talonor Codex—a cryptic travel journal that Nina found in Atlantis—is snatched from a well-guarded exhibition right in front of their eyes. The codex holds clues to the location of the Vault of Shiva and its mythical contents: the chronicles of the ancient Hindu god of destruction himself. From a deadly shootout in San Francisco to a hidden valley in the snowbound Himalayas, Nina and Eddie must run a labyrinthine gauntlet of ruthless killers, corrupted faiths, and twisted ambitions to reach the sacred vault ahead of a cunning billionaire with a plot to remake the world—after he brings this one crashing down.