"In the caves beneath an Italian lake, the fossil of a creature older than the earth has been disinterred. In the Judaean desert, a legendary parchment has been discovered. One reveals the secrets of Heaven. One foretells an impending Hell. And deciphering their message has been left to paleontologist Carter Cox--a man of science whose faith in the empirical is about to be shaken by forces of evil beyond imagining."--P. [4] of cover