The Sacred Sword
Scott Mariani
IAN ANCIENT SWORD. A LONG BURIED SECRET.ONE MAN WILL UNCOVER THE MYSTERY.It’s Christmas, and on a trip back to the UK to try to sort out his stormy personal life, ex-SAS soldier Ben Hope runs into two old friends. Simeon and Michaela were once his fellow students at Oxford – now they are the Reverend and Mrs Arundel.Ben senses that Simeon is deeply troubled and frightened, but before the truth can emerge about his secretive research project concerning a mysterious, ancient ‘sacred sword’, both he and Michael are wiped out in a devastating road crash. Convinced that his friends’ deaths were no accident, Ben is propelled on a global quest to unlock the enigma of the sacred sword. At every step, he is pursued by ruthless agents of the sinister organisation that will stop at nothing to acquire it.In the course of his investigations, Ben will discover an incredible secret, not just about the history of Christianity but about his own past.BEN HOPE is one of the most celebrated action adventure heroes in British fiction and Scott Mariani is the author of numerous bestsellers. Join the ever-growing legion of readers who get breathless with anticipation when the countdown to the new Ben Hope thriller begins …
SCOTT MARIANI
The Sacred Sword
Copyright
Published by Avon an imprint of
HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street,
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
This ebook edition published by HarperCollins Publishers 2016
First published in paperback by HarperCollinsPublishers, 2012
Copyright © Scott Mariani 2012
Cover design © Henry Steadman 2016
Scott Mariani asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Ebook Edition © May 2016 ISBN: 9780007342815
Version: 2018-07-18
Dedication
To B.D., without whose inspiration
this story would never have been written
Contents
Cover (#u1593669c-0d72-5ce8-85bb-e3010498cc7a)
Title page (#ub7218581-f5b4-59e0-a1c3-fed6eec1c9d1)
Copyright (#u5b4accc4-dad3-5e3a-aa89-59170f8b8a7f)
Dedication (#u187cce82-0fdd-532b-baa7-47aac24de2f2)
Prologue (#u979a6b12-c450-5b07-8f67-8fd6d8e32dab)
Chapter One (#udf76e379-a825-5565-a749-ce047f5db2df)
Chapter Two (#u57f25f01-30e2-52a6-85d1-649a631956ac)
Chapter Three (#ufea45b9c-1c4f-5fe7-a6b1-4943ed8bc136)
Chapter Four (#u14b89c25-c4f2-5614-a963-410798eff731)
Chapter Five (#u40199041-db53-5e48-979d-bb7c3168769a)
Chapter Six (#u66df2649-8aef-594a-a620-de3fdcd27e5c)
Chapter Seven (#u6ea5bbca-c332-592e-8b2f-b46d3d6d3f73)
Chapter Eight (#ue97ec759-aadd-5776-abe7-a1939c6098e5)
Chapter Nine (#u322da609-c487-56c3-a694-26bbc74e730f)
Chapter Ten (#ubd6c8bbf-7470-5e18-947d-b34a30e51194)
Chapter Eleven (#ue7d60453-fdab-530c-9d8c-d511533c7e0b)
Chapter Twelve (#u434453c0-5b2c-5088-b596-118bfb392bfd)
Chapter Thirteen (#ucf496d5a-a156-5f8f-8800-f66ab58eacde)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twenty (#litres_trial_promo)