As the crusader era ends, Templar Sergeant Brim Hastings must free his imprisoned brethren by surrendering the heretical scroll that has enabled their two-hundred-year leverage over the Roman Catholic Church. After escaping his order's persecution, and having the role of savior thrust upon him, he and Cypriot apprentice tanner Shayla Kostas discover the boundaries between good and evil are not where they'd thought. Seven centuries later, Rick Lambert's investigation into Christian priest abductions in Iraq grows in scope after he's given a cryptic Roman gaming stone. As he learns of the motive for recent Templar preceptory demolitions throughout France, he and his team must prevent religious extremists from shattering Christianity by winning the race to rediscover the Vectis Templi-the Lever of the Temple.