Force Sigma

More heart-stopping action and suspense from the bestselling author of Amazonia and Subterranean. . . . “Rollins writes with intelligence, clarity, and a refreshing sense of humor.”--Kirkus Reviews In his five previous thrillers, James Rollins, the king of speculative adventure writing, has taken readers on mind-expanding journeys spanning from the top of the world to deep within the earth's surface. In this latest voyage of imagination combining hard science with explosive page-turning excitement--his most breathtaking yet--he explores the mysterious sands of the Arabian peninsula. Twenty years ago, a wealthy British financier disappeared near Ubar, the fabled lost city buried beneath the sands of Oman. Now, an expedition of scientists, led by the financier's daughter, is finally setting off for the legendary metropolist to unlock the desert's secrets. What they find, however, is more beautiful than they ever dreamed--and far deadlier. Within Ubar is a powerful energy source that could fuel the entire earth above--if it can be harnessed. But before they can resurface, the explorers become trapped. For the same life-giving force that can save the world is about to set off a giant, sweeping storm awesome enough to annihilate everything in its wake . . .

During a crowded service at a cathedral in Germany, armed intruders in monks' robes unleash a nightmare of blood and destruction. But the killers have not come for gold; they seek a more valuable prize: the bones of the Magi who once paid homage to a newborn savior . . . a treasure that could reshape the world. With the Vatican in turmoil, SIGMA Force leaps into action. An elite team of scientific and Special Forces operatives under the command of Grayson Pierce and accompanied by Lieutenant Rachel Verona of Rome's carabinieri, they are pursuing a deadly mystery that weaves through sites of the Seven Wonders of the World and ends at the doorstep of an ancient, mystical, and terrifying secret order. For there are those with dark plans for the stolen sacred remains that will alter the future of humankind . . . when science and religion unite to unleash a horror not seen since the beginning of time.

L'horreur du crime est indicible. Lors d'une messe dans la cathédrale de Cologne, des moines encapuchonnés interrompent brusquement l'office. Alors qu'ils abattent froidement le prêtre, les fidèles qui venaient de communier, empoisonnés, meurent dans d'atroces souffrances. Puis les assassins profanent le tombeau qui contient les saintes reliques des Rois mages, avant de fusiller les derniers survivants, laissant derrière eux un carnage indescriptible. Pour lever le voile sur ce sacrilège, le gouvernement américain réclame l'intervention de Sigma Force, un groupe d'action secrète spécialisé dans les enquêtes hautement délicates. Très vite, les agents sont confrontés à une mystérieuse société ésotérique datant du Moyen Âge et baptisée l'Ordre du Dragon, dont les sinistres intentions pourraient menacer les fondements mêmes de l'humanité. Comparé à juste titre à Tom Clancy pour la frénésie de ses scènes d'action et la précision de ses recherches scientifiques, et à Dan Brown pour ses intrigues mêlant ésotérisme et suspense, James Rollins livre un chef-d'œuvre du genre et le début d'une série passionnante mettant en scène l'équipe de choc Sigma Force.

From the high seas of the Indian Ocean to the dark jungles of Southeast Asia, from the canals of Venice to the crypts of ancient kings, SIGMA Force must piece together a mystery that, unless solved, will end all life on our planet... But even this challenge may prove too large for SIGMA Force alone. With a worldwide pandemic growing, Painter Crowe and Commander Gray Pierce turn to their deadliest adversaries for help, teaming up with a diabolical foe that has thwarted them in the past. But can the enemy be trusted even now? Or will they prove to be another Judas...?

Un homme hirsute s'écroule dans les bras de Gray Pierce : c'est Archibald Polk, professeur de neurologie au MIT et membre des Jason, un groupe de prix Nobel conseillant l'armée américaine. Abattu en plein centre de Washington, le savant devait certainement représenter une menace. La pièce grecque qu'il confie au militaire avant de mourir est le seul message qu'il parvient à transmettre. Le premier morceau d'un puzzle qui va mener Pierce jusqu'aux terrifiantes expérimentations de savants russes sur des enfants. Mais quel rapport avec le temple de Delphes frappé sur le revers de la monnaie ? Egalement chez Pocket dans la même série Sigma Force : L'Ordre du Dragon, La Bible de Darwin et La malédiction de Marco Polo.

At Princeton University, a famed geneticist dies inside a biohazard lab. In Rome, a Vatican archaeologist is found dead in the heart of St. Peters Basilica. In Africa, a US Senator's son is slain within a Red Cross camp in Ghana. These three murders on three continents bear a horrifying tie: all the victims are marked by a Druidic pagan cross burned into their flesh. The bizarre murders thrust Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force into a global hunt for a powerful group of industrialists who have a stranglehold on the world's food supply. Aided by two women from his past, Gray flees a trio of high-tech assassins as he pieces together the clues. But saving the world comes at a high price: Pierce must sacrifice one of the women. Yet even that price might not be enough, for, as he soon discovers, the only true path to salvation lies with the Doomsday Key.

When a riot at an archaeological site containing hundreds of mummified bodies in the Rocky Mountains results in murder, Sigma Force is on the case. The investigation ignites a battle between the nations most powerful agencies, but worse, a geological meltdown threatens to destroy the western half of the country.

Bloodline, a breathtaking Sigma Force thriller from the phenomenal James Rollins, is further proof that, when it comes to explosive adventure and nail-biting suspense, this New York Times bestselling author is one of the very best in the business! Bloodline is a lightning-paced, unputdownable international thriller chock-full of the trademark elements that have propelled Rollins to the top of virtually every national bestseller list: cutting-edge science ingeniously blending with history and nonstop action. A relentlessly exciting tale that races across the globe, Bloodline ensnares popular series hero Commander Gray Pierce in a deadly conspiracy involving Somali pirates, the kidnapped daughter of the U.S. Vice President, and a dark secret hiding in the human genetic code. This is mystery, suspense, surprise, and ingeniously inventive storytelling as only James Rollins can do it.

In The Eye of God, a Sigma Force novel, New York Times bestselling author James Rollins delivers an apocalyptic vision of a future predicted by the distant past. In the wilds of Mongolia, a research satellite has crashed, triggering an explosive search for its valuable cargo: a code-black physics project connected to the study of dark energy—and a shocking image of the eastern seaboard of the United States in utter ruin. At the Vatican, a package arrives containing two strange artifacts: a skull scrawled with ancient Aramaic and a tome bound in human skin. DNA evidence reveals that both came from the same body: the long dead Mongol king Genghis Khan. Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force set out to discover a truth tied to the fall of the Roman Empire, to a mystery going back to the birth of Christianity, and to a weapon hidden for centuries that holds the fate of humanity.

"In the remote mountains of Croatia, an archaeologist makes a strange discovery: a subterranean Catholic chapel, hidden for centuries, holds the bones of a Neanderthal woman. In the same cavern system, elaborate primitive paintings tell the story of an immense battle between tribes of Neanderthals and monstrous shadowy figures. Who is this mysterious enemy depicted in these ancient drawings, and what do the paintings mean? Before any questions can be answered, the investigative team is attacked, while at the same time, a bloody assault is made upon a primate research center outside of Atlanta. The search for the truth will take Commander Gray Pierce of Sigma Force 50,000 years into the past. As he and Sigma trace the evolution of human intelligence to its true source, they will be plunged into a cataclysmic battle for the future of humanity that stretches across the globe ... and beyond. Along the way, revelations involving the lost continent of Atlantis will reveal true mysteries tied to mankind's first steps on the moon. Gray Pierce and his team will face their greatest threat: an ancient evil, resurrected by modern genetic science, strong enough to bring about the end of man's dominance on this planet."-- Back cover

If the biblical plagues of Egypt truly happened—could they happen again—on a global scale? Two years after vanishing into the Sudanese desert, the leader of a British archeological expedition, Professor Harold McCabe, comes stumbling out, but he dies before he can tell his story. The mystery deepens when an autopsy uncovers a bizarre corruption: someone had begun to mummify the professor’s body—while he was still alive. Professor McCabe had vanished while searching for proof of the ten plagues of Moses. And when the medical team who performed the man’s autopsy falls ill with an unknown disease, a disturbing question arises. Are those plagues starting again? Seeking answers, Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma Force travel from the plague-ridden streets of Cairo to an ancient tomb buried under the sands of the Sudan to a remote Arctic engineering complex housing a mad genius. But time is running out to confront a threat born of the ancient past and made real by the latest science—a danger that will unleash a cascading series of plagues, culminating in a scourge that could kill all of the world’s children . . . decimating humankind forever.

Praise for The Demon Crown: Bone-chilling. Publishers Weekly (starred review)

In the race to save one of their own, Sigma Force must wrestle with the deepest spiritual mysteries of mankind in this mind-expanding adventure from the #1 New York Times bestselling author, told with his trademark blend of cutting edge science, historical mystery, and pulse-pounding action. Arriving home on Christmas Eve, Commander Gray Pierce discovers his house ransacked, his pregnant lover missing, and his best friend’s wife, Kat, unconscious on the kitchen floor. With no shred of evidence to follow, his one hope to find the woman he loves and his unborn child is Kat, the only witness to what happened. But the injured woman is in a semi-comatose state and cannot speak—until a brilliant neurologist offers a radical approach to "unlock" her mind long enough to ask a few questions. What Pierce learns from Kat sets Sigma Force on a frantic quest for answers that are connected to mysteries reaching back to the Spanish Inquisition and to one of the most reviled and blood-soaked books in human history—a Medieval text known as the Malleus Maleficarum, the Hammer of Witches. What they uncover hidden deep in the past will reveal a frightening truth in the present and a future on the brink of annihilation, and force them to confront the ultimate question: What does it mean to have a soul?

"For eons, the city of Troy--whose legendary fall was detailed in Homer's Iliad--was believed to be myth, until archaeologists in the nineteenth century uncovered its ancient walls buried beneath the sands. If Troy was real, how much of Homer's twin tales of gods and monsters, curses and miracles--the Iliad and the Odyssey--could also be true and awaiting discovery? In the frozen tundra of Greenland, a group of modern-day researchers stumble on a shocking find: a medieval ship buried a half-mile below the ice. The ship's hold contains a collection of even older artifacts--tools of war--dating back to the Bronze Age. Inside the captain's cabin is a clockwork gold map with an intricate silver astrolabe embedded in it. Once activated, the moving map traces the path of Odysseus's famous ship as it sailed away from Troy. But the route detours as the map opens to reveal a fiery river leading to a hidden realm underneath the Mediterranean Sea--the subterranean world of Tartarus, the Greek name for Hell. When word of Tartarus spreads, the phantasmagoric horrors found in Homer's tales are all too real--and whoever possesses them can use their awesome power to control the future of humanity. Now, to prevent a tyrant from igniting a global war, Sigma Force must cross the very gates of Hell."--Back cover

As they race to find answers, the members of Sigma quickly realize they have become the prey.To head off global catastrophe, Sigma Force must risk their lives to uncover the shattering secret at the heart of the African continent-a truth that will illuminate who we are as a species and where we may be headed .