Now the High Priest stepped closer. He raised the dagger to show the crowd, its long, curved blade glittering in the firelight; then in a fast left-to-right movement that made Wolf flinch, he nicked the girl’s neck with the edge of the blade. The blood trickled down her throat and chest. The High Priest bent in front of her, and for a few moments Wolf couldn’t tell what he was doing. Then he stepped aside, and Wolf saw the five-pointed Pentacle drawn in blood on the girl’s stomach.

This was no theatre show. This was real.

Wolf had witnessed enough. He finally averted his eyes and turned away. But he didn’t turn away fast enough to avoid seeing the final stroke of the High Priest’s dagger that sliced deep into the sacrificial victim’s throat and ended her life. Fire and explosions lit up the whole lake island as the chanting of the crowd reached its climax and became a roar of delight and satisfaction.

Wolf staggered to his feet and stumbled away through the trees, twigs whipping at his face as he beat his retreat. To hell with the job. To hell with the agency, the money, the whole damn thing. He didn’t care any more. He was out of here. Done with all of it, forever. He already knew where he would run to: a special place in which nobody would ever find him.

Too late, Wolf spotted the gleam of something smooth and glassy, small and round, pointing down at him from the ivied trunk of a tree.

It was a camera. And he’d been caught right on it.

TERROR HAS A NAME …

A deadly terror plot. A race against the clock. Will evil prevail?

UK readers, click here to buy now.

US readers, click here to buy now.

ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE.

The wilds of India. A kidnap victim, a ruthless gang and just one man standing in their way …

UK readers, click here to buy now.

US readers, click here to buy now.

DEEP SOUTH.

DEEPER SECRETS.

The courageous act of a slave girl changed the course of the American Civil War.

Now, over 150 years later, could it change the course of Ben Hope’s life?

UK readers, click here to buy now.

US readers, click here to buy now.

About the Author

Scott Mariani is the author of the worldwide-acclaimed action-adventure thriller series featuring ex-SAS hero Ben Hope, which has sold millions of copies in Scott’s native UK alone and is also translated into over 20 languages. His books have been described as ‘James Bond meets Jason Bourne, with a historical twist’. The first Ben Hope book, The Alchemist’s Secret, spent six straight weeks at #1 on Amazon’s Kindle chart, and all the others have been Sunday Times bestsellers.