Autorentext

**James Rollins **is the **#1 New York Times **bestselling author of international thrillers that have been translated into more than forty languages. His Sigma series has been lauded as one of the “top crowd pleasers” (New York Times) and one of the “hottest summer reads” (People magazine). In each novel, acclaimed for its originality, Rollins unveils unseen worlds, scientific breakthroughs, and historical secrets—and he does it all at breakneck speed and with stunning insight. He lives in the Sierra Nevada.

Klappentext

Off the coast of Brazil, a team of scientists discovers an island where all life has been eradicated by a species beyond imagination. Before they can report their discovery, a mysterious agency attacks, killing them all, save one: an expert on venomous creatures. Strangest of all, this inexplicable threat traces back to a terrifying secret buried a century ago beneath the National Mall: a cache of bones preserved in amber that holds an astonishing promise for the future: the very secret of life after death. ****

Yet, nothing stays buried forever. An ancient horror is free once more, nursed and developed into a weapon of incalculable strength and malignancy, ready to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting world. To stop its spread, Commander Grayson Pierce of Sigma Force must survive a direct attack on the island of Maui. But this time, even Sigma may not be able to decipher this deadly mystery, one that traces back to the founding of the Smithsonian Institution. Running out of time and options, Pierce will be forced to make an impossible choice. To eradicate this extinction-level threat and expose those involved, he will have to join forces with Sigma’s greatest enemy even it if means sacrificing one of his own.

Zusammenfassung
A construction project beneath the National Mall reveals a dark secret dating back to the Civil War, something buried by a cabal of scientists, led by Alexander Graham Bell, who helped found the Smithsonian Institution. It is a cache of bones, preserved in amber, protecting a wonder like no other, the very secret of life after death. But such a prize is guarded by a horror out of the ancient past, a horror that still lives in the marrow of those bones-and is now free again. From a crystalline lab atop Mount Fuji to an island off of Hawaii teeming with what’s been called the “dark matter of life,” Sigma Force must solve a mystery going back eons, to when life first took root on this planet. But the menace is spreading, changing, growing, adapting, outwitting every attempt to stop it. It means to retake a world it once ruled. For Sigma Force to stop it, Commander Grayson Pierce will have to do the unthinkable: team up with Sigma’s greatest enemy-the newly resurrected Guild--even it if means sacrificing one of their own.