SYNOPSIS:

The story starts in the reign of Mihail Romanov, the first Romanov Tsar of Russia in the early 1600s and moves back and forth through time to the 21st century. The main character is Dick Brady who is Ex-Military Intelligence and Special Forces, currently working as a Private Investigator in London. England. During his wars with the Polish aggressor Mikhail Romanov bonds with an English Mercenary who is assisting him in his battle against Poland. At the end of a successful campaign, Mikhail returns to his beautiful young wife who informs him that she is with child. He has a jeweled crucifix made for her as a birthday gift. She dies in childbirth and in his grief Mikhail gives the Cross to his English mercenary friend Theo, who returns with it to England. Theo inherits his father’s title and becomes Earl of Lincoln. Theo is a sympathizer with the religious dissenters, the Pilgrim Fathers of the 1600s and passes on the Cross for them to use to finance their resettlement in the new world. They are thwarted in this when they are arrested in Boston, England. While in Boston, under arrest, they hide the Cross with the intention to retrieve it at a later date. A twist of fate leaves it hidden and unfound until the 21st century when two Cambridge professors come across a clue to its whereabouts while reviewing ancient documents as part of their profession. One of the professors, Marios, has a gambling problem and owes a lot of cash to a moneylender, the nasty Ben Scrud. Marios retrieves the Cross and disappears with it before Ben Scrud can take it to clear the debt. The other, Sol Levy, a little rotund man, is followed and attacked by the moneylender’s thugs and then saved by Dick Brady. Together this unlikely pair begin a search for the missing professor and come up against several different criminal elements including the Russian Mafia who are interested in the monetary value of the Cross. The action moves from England to Cyprus then Russia, Barbados and India. In Cyprus Dick meets and falls in love with a sexy Russian Government Emissary, Ivana, who also has an interest in the Cross on behalf of the Russian Government who want to repatriate Russian Artefacts.