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About The Gemini Contenders: A Novel
Product Description Salonika, Greece: December 1939. In the dead of night, a clandestine order of monks embarks on a desperate mission: to transport a mysterious vault to a hiding place high in the Italian Alps. The sinister cache, concealed for centuries, could rip apart the Christian world. Now, as the Nazi threat marches inexorably closer, men both good and evil will be drawn into a violent and deadly hunt, sparking a relentless struggle that could forever change the world as we know it. Praise for Robert Ludlum and The Gemini Contenders “[Robert Ludlum’s] most ambitious novel . . . Its twist and turns carry the reader on a fast bobsled run. . . . A marvelously unflagging imagination.” —The New York Times “A winner . . . one of those books you intend to put down after just one more chapter . . . suddenly it’s two in the morning and you’ve read the whole thing.” —United Press International “A skyrocket of a book . . . The action never stops for a second.” —The Plain Dealer “Packed full of excitement.” —The Denver Post Review Praise for Robert Ludlum and The Gemini Contenders “[Robert Ludlum’s] most ambitious novel . . . Its twist and turns carry the reader on a fast bobsled run. . . . A marvelously unflagging imagination.” —The New York Times “A winner . . . one of those books you intend to put down after just one more chapter . . . suddenly it’s two in the morning and you’ve read the whole thing.” —United Press International “A skyrocket of a book . . . The action never stops for a second.” —The Plain Dealer “Packed full of excitement.” —The Denver Post About the Author Robert Ludlum was the author of twenty-one novels, each a New York Times bestseller. There are more than 210 million of his books in print, and they have been translated into thirty-two languages. In addition to the Jason Bourne series— The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum—he was the author of The Scarlatti Inheritance, The Chancellor Manuscript, and The Apocalypse Watch, among many others. Mr. Ludlum passed away in March 2001. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. PROLOGUE DECEMBER 9, 1939 SALONIKA, GREECE One by one the trucks struggled up the steep road in the predawn light of Salonika. Each went a bit faster at the top; the drivers were anxious to return to the darkness of the descending country road cut out of the surrounding forests. Yet each of the five drivers in the five trucks had to control his anxiety. None could allow his foot to slip from a brake or press an accelerator beyond a certain point; eyes had to be squinted, sharpening the focus, alert for a sudden stop or an unexpected curve in the darkness. For it was darkness. No headlights were turned on; the column traveled with only the gray light of the Grecian night, low-flying clouds filtering the spill of the Grecian moon. The journey was an exercise in discipline. And discipline was not foreign to these drivers, or to the riders beside the drivers. Each was a priest. A monk. From the Order of Xenope, the harshest monastic brotherhood under the control of the Patriarchate of Constantine. Blind obedience coexisted with self-reliance; they were disciplined to the instant of death. In the lead truck, the young bearded priest removed his cassock, under which were the clothes of a laborer, a heavy shirt and trousers of thick fabric. He rolled up the cassock and placed it in the well behind the high-backed seat, shoving it down between odd items of canvas and cloth. He spoke to the robed driver beside him. “It’s no more than a half mile now. The stretch of track parallels the road for about three hundred feet. In the open; it will be sufficient.” “The train will be there?” asked the middle-aged, powerfully built monk, narrowing his eyes in the darkness. “Yes. Four freight cars, a single engineer. No stokers. No other men.” “You’ll be using a shovel, the
