Copyright © 2009 by Thomas B. Ronan. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission.

PROLOGUE

I

PARIS 1314

JACQUES DE MOLAY, the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, lay against the filthy slime of the wall of the dungeon cell.

Since his arrest seven years earlier by King Phillip IV, he had been tortured and starved. Like all medieval knights he had been conditioned for physical battle with massive edged weapons. At the time of his arrest he weighed almost 240 pounds on a muscular six-foot frame.