num_pages: 464
description: The Ghent Altarpiece is the most violated work of art in the world. Thirteen times it has been vandalized dismantled or stolen. Why? What secrets does it hold? Enter UNESCO investigator Nicholas Lee who works for the United Nations Cultural Liaison and Investigative Office (CLIO). Nicks job is to protect the worlds cultural artifactsfrom countless lesser-known objects to national treasures. When Nick travels to Belgium for a visit with a woman from his past he unwittingly stumbles on the trail of the twelfth panel for the Ghent Altarpiece stolen in 1934 under cover of night and never seen since. Soon Nick is plunged into a bitter conflict one that has been simmering for nearly two thousand years. On one side is the Maidens of Saint-Michael les Vautours Vultures a secret order of nuns and the guardians of a great truth. Pitted against them is the Vatican which has wanted for centuries to both find and possess what the nuns guard. Because of Nick the maidens have finally been exposed their secret placed in dire jeopardya vulnerability that the Vatican swiftly moves to exploit utilizing an ambitious cardinal and a corrupt archbishop both with agendas of their own. From the tranquil canals of Ghent to the towering bastions of Carcassonne and finally into an ancient abbey high in the French Pyrenees Nick Lee must confront a modern-day religious crusade intent on eliminating a shocking truth from humanitys past. Success or failurelife and deathall turn on the Omega Factor. 
language: English
title: The Omega Factor
publisher: Grand Central Publishing