More than three thousand years ago, Jason and the Argonauts left Greece on a quest to retrieve the sacred Golden Fleece. But as they voyaged to a new land, a terrible dragon followed them. Neither hero nor enchantress nor bard could defeat its sinister power, only delay its vengeance. Many years have passed. In a land torn by war, a small band of brave men sought to save lives. The secret they buried died with them, and another peril passed into the shadow. Until now. Archaeologists digging in a massive cavern have found more than the remains of Hun warriors. The complicated discovery could enhance our understanding of ancient history, add a new chapter to paleontology, bring to light a new group of heroes from the twentieth century - and threaten an entire civilization. It falls to unlikely secret agent Chase Creighton to investigate a mystery that may finally explain the truth behind his own birth. From the underground rivers and gaping sinkholes of Slovenia to the sun-baked plains of Niger, from the hills and creeks of West Virginia to a sprawling temple complex in Siberia, Chase and his unlikely allies - among them a mountain lion and a possible mobster on the run - must follow the path of the ancient world's most elusive treasure. Against them are men who will stop at nothing to unite the deadliest artifacts of two ages of history. Two continents will die in dragonfire, unless Chase and his comrades can find the source of - and perhaps the cure for - the most fearsome disease of our time: the Golden Plague.