The Omega Factor

Nicholas Lee investigates for UNESCO, working at the United Nations' Cultural Liaison and Investigative Office (CLIO), which protects cultural artifacts of every size, from obscure objects to national treasures. His latest case touches the Ghent Altarpiece, a painting that has been vandalized, dismantled or stolen thirteen times.

Nick travels to Belgium to see a woman from his past and, without intending to, picks up the trail of a legendary panel from the altarpiece. It was taken at night in 1934 and has never been seen since.

The trail leads Nick into a conflict nearly two thousand years old. The Maidens of Saint-Michael, known as les Vautours (the Vultures), are a secret order of nuns who guard a great truth. The Vatican has sought for centuries to find that truth and take it.

Nick's discovery exposes the nuns, and the Vatican moves to exploit it through an ambitious cardinal and a corrupt archbishop, each pursuing a private agenda.

The action moves from the canals of Ghent to the fortified walls of Carcassonne and then to an ancient abbey high in the French Pyrenees. This is a conspiracy thriller built on art theft, religious secrecy and a modern crusade to bury a shocking fact from humanity's past. Lives depend on something called the Omega Factor.