num_pages: 608
description: Locating Alexander the Great's final resting place-unknown to this day-remains a tantalizing goal for both archaeologists and treasure hunters. Now the quest for this coveted prize is about to heat up. After narrowly escaping a fire that consumes a Danish museum Cotton Malone-former U.S. Justice Department agent turned rare-book dealer-learns from his friend the beguiling adventurer Cassiopeia Vitt that the blaze was part of a campaign of arson intended to mask a far more diabolical design. From the ashes of the U.S.S.R. a new nation has arisen: the Central Asian Federation. At its helm is Supreme Minister Irina Zovastina a cunning despot with the single-minded desire to surpass Alexander the Great as history's ultimate conqueror. The Federation has amassed a harrowing arsenal of biological weapons and only one thing keeps Zovastina from setting in motion her death march of domination: a miraculous healing serum kept secret by an ancient puzzle and buried with the mummified remains of Alexander the Great-in a tomb lost to the ages for more than 1500 years. Together Cotton and Cassiopeia must outrun and outthink the forces allied against them in order to unravel a riddle whose solution could destroy or save millions of people-depending on who finds the lost tomb first.
language: English
title: The Venetian Betrayal
publisher: Ballantine Books