The Sinai Artifact - Howard Gleichenhaus

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Résumé :
The murder of an antiquities curator at the Smithsonian Institution brings FBI agent, Ted Lansing to the prestigious Washington museum. He again steps into an all-consuming case that takes him from the comforts of his new life to the barren, mountainous terrain of the Sinai Peninsula in search of the killer and an elusive piece of granite, The Sinai Artifact.The curator's death and subsequent recovery of the priceless artifact becomes a race across the globe, first to Rome and ultimately to the Middle East, all with deadly consequences. What secrets do the objects hold, and how many innocent victims must die in search of the greatest archeological discovery of all time? Or is the oddly shaped stone something else entirely? From Lansing's initial discovery that his prime suspect is not who she firstappeared to be, to a cast of conspiratorial characters, the case takes Lansing halfway around the world.One time German Stasi agent, Hans Richter, now in the employ of Russia's clandestine service, orders the murder of an elderly Vatican priest who comes too close to the artifact's true secret, but it is only the start of Richter's murderous quest for the priceless stone.Roadblocks to Richter's pursuit of the treasure, and Lansing's relentless hunt to uncover the secret buried in the Sinai, are thwarted by a formidable adversary of Richter, linguist, and expert in biblical languages, Russian archaeologist Irina Kazakov. But for which side is she working?What are the Russian's hiding, keeping from the world? Why is the Catholic Church so interested in recovering the oddly shaped stone? Does the centuries old monastery of Santa Katerina and its complement of Greek Orthodox priests hold answer?