OSI special agent Maxine Decker is back in this riveting follow-up to THE BLADE. She is called upon to locate and recover a mysterious artifact stolen from a blacker-than-black government facility. The missing item is a fragment that was found at the crash site of the Roswell UFO incident in 1947. Following the trail, Maxine discovers a sinister plot to use the technological data stored in the artifact to build a device called the Shield. The result will bring the United States and its allies to their knees without ever firing a shot. She soon shifts from being the hunter to the hunted as she becomes a falsely accused international fugitive. Her only hope to redeem herself and stop the most dangerous event in modern history is to gain access to an underground facility in the remote desert of Sudan. As the clock ticks down to zero, Maxine risks all to save her country. Praise for THE SHIELD "Sholes and Moore have done it again. Their latest thriller, THE SHIELD, combines exciting historical speculations with tantalizing extrapolations about science--both real and theoretical. But best of all, the book rocks on all cylinders, delivering a topical political punch and a riveting adventure story. Can't wait to travel with Agent Decker on her next assignment " -- James Rollins, New York Times bestseller of THE EYE OF GOD