Tracker by James Rollins Read Free Book Online

the window. As Tucker gunned the engine, a howl burst from his partner, an earsplitting call, singing to his own blood.
    The sedan shot forward and barreled out the archway.
    Behind them, the forest erupted with a chorus of yowls and wails, echoing up into the night and chasing them out into the world.
    As they raced away, the wind blew brochures around the car’s interior. It seemed the prior owner had been dreaming of faraway trips, too, ways to spend that gold.
    One landed against the windshield and became plastered there crookedly.
    The photo depicted palm trees and sandy white beaches.
    Its exotic name conjured up another time, a land of mystery and mythology.
    Zanzibar.
    Tucker grinned, and Kane wagged his tail.
    Yeah, that’ll do.

 
     
     
     
    S o ends this adventure with Tucker and Kane—but a larger one looms ahead for the pair as they reach Zanzibar in a novel titled Bloodline . A fateful crossing with Commander Pierce of Sigma Force will cast them into an adventure spanning the globe, one that will reveal a frightening scientific truth about the nature of mankind: That immortals are walking among us today.
     
    Continue reading for a sneak peek at
    BLOODLINE
    On sale June 26, 2012

 
    Notes from the Historical Record
    T hroughout history, conspiracy theories abound. It is only human nature. We are forever looking for patterns amid chaos, for signs of the invisible puppeteer manipulating the grand scheme of lives, governments, and the path of mankind. Some of these shadowy plotters are cast as villains; others as great benefactors. Some of these secret cabals are based on historical facts; others are mere fanciful fictions; and yet even more are a Gordian knot of the two, woven so inexplicably together that the line between fact and fiction becomes a tangled tapestry of false history.
    And for no other organization in history has this stood truer than the infamous Knights Templar.
    In the early twelfth century, the order began as a group of nine knights, who swore to protect pilgrims on their way to and from the Holy Lands. From those humble beginnings, a great order would eventually grow in both wealth and power and spread across Europe until even popes and kings feared them. Then, on October 13, 1307, the king of France and the current pope conspired to arrest and disband the order, claiming great atrocities had been committed by the knights, including heresy. In the aftermath of that purge, legends and myths blurred the true fate of the order: stories of lost treasures abounded; tales spread of knights escaping persecution to arrive on the shores of the New World; and some reports even claim that the order still exists today, in secret and under guard, protecting a power that could reshape the world.
    But let’s set aside such speculations and mythologies and go back to those original nine knights. What many do not know is that those nine founding members were all related by blood or marriage, arising from a single family. Eight of them are recorded by name in historical documents. The ninth remains a mystery and a source of much speculation today by historians. Who was this mysterious founding member of an order that would grow in such prominence in history and legend? Why was this last knight never named as plainly as the others?
    The answer to that mystery is the beginning of a great adventure.

 
    Notes from the Scientific Record
    O n February 21, 2011, the cover of Time magazine declared: 2045, The Year Man Becomes Immortal . At face value, that might seem a wild claim, but other scientists have made similar statements. Dr. Ronald Klatz, in his book Advances in Anti-Age Medicine, wrote:
    Within the next fifty years or so, assuming an individual can avoid becoming the victim of major trauma or homicide, it is entirely possible that he or she will be able to live virtually forever.
    We are living in an exciting time when advances in medicine, genetics, technology, and a myriad of other disciplines