It's the beginning of the new millennium and Tony Mascelle, the CEO of a struggling Internet startup, is desperately trying to keep his young company alive in the midst of the economic chaos following the bursting of the Internet Bubble. He thought that he was living through the most difficult time in his life, until one morning when he wakes up to discover a new world that, by comparison, makes his former trials and tribulations seem absurdly mundane. An unsettling dream, a flash in an open window across the street, a visit from a mysterious federal agent; and a beautiful and enigmatic woman, begins his introduction to his family's 400 year old secret. A secret that has claimed kings, kingdoms, and even presidents. Now, he discovers that his family's dark and turbulent past is about to collide with his present, in a series of events that will threaten not only his life, but the lives of countless millions. The Covenant of Malta is an epic family saga that spans centuries, taking the reader on a breathtaking ride from an historic siege at a massive citadel, located on a pivotal island outpost in the distant reaches of the Eastern Mediterranean, to a small beach cottage in a sleepy summer community on New York's Fire Island, where Tony Mascelle is forced to take a stand against an enemy who intends to thrust a dagger into the heart of America, beginning with a blade that will arrive from the sky, in the worst terrorist attack in history.