When the Dresden Text - a treasured fragment of medieval illuminated manuscript - is stolen from a prestigious New York gallery, its loss hits Tim Lacy hard. For his firm, Lacy Security, was responsible for the safety of the exhibits but - more devastating - a colleague and friend was killed during the break-in. Within days the police, acting on an anonymous tip-off, have traced the armed robber. There is a shoot-out and the criminal is killed. `Case closed' for the New York Police Department. But not for Tim Lacy. The suspiciously swift wrapping-up of the case leaves too many questions unanswered. Why was the Dresden Text stolen when other rarer, more valuable exhibits were on display nearby? For what reason was an ageing though once notorious terrorist chosen for the job? Why have the police been ordered to close the file? And where now is the Dresden Text? Convinced that only the answers to these questions will lead to those responsible for his colleague's murder, Tim sets out to unravel a mystery the police refuse to explore further. His investigations take him, via Geneva and Vienna, to Bonn, Berlin and Gdansk - as Tim and his new wife Catherine uncover a bewildering, convoluted trail leading ever deeper into a dark morass of high-level politics and big business in the new Europe, where cynical and sinister forces are at work. But there is a deeper mystery - the Dresden Text itself. What is its connection with the dramatic conflicts and burni