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Chinese characters glowing on the screen. The symbols had been found etched on the recovered drive’s housing.

    “All I can tell you is that this translates from Mandarin as ‘The Ark,’ ” Jason said. “But beyond that, I have no clue to its significance.”
    Painter placed a palm on his shoulder. “That’ll have to do for now. Why don’t you head home and get some well-deserved rest?”
    Jason nodded, but he did not look happy.
    Neither am I .
    Once Painter had the place to himself, he brought up a video file on another screen. It was footage from one of the countless security cams that monitored the nation’s capital. In this case, it covered the National Mall.
    He watched a small Jeep shoot up the side of a mountain of dirt, coming to an abrupt halt near the top. The pair of pursuing motorcycles shot past the stalled vehicle and went sailing high—before descending in a deadly plunge into a dark pit.
    Painter rubbed his chin, appreciating the quick wits and skill involved in pulling off that takedown. He sensed that there remained unplumbed depths to that driver. He even allowed himself to consider an impossible proposition.
    Maybe it’ s high time I gave Kowalski his own mission .

 
    What’s True, What’s Not
    At the end of my full-length novels, I love to spell out what’s real and what’s fiction. I thought I’d briefly do the same here.
    S MITHS ONIAN’S C ONSERVATION B IOLOGY I NSTITUTE. This research station’s main facility encompasses 3,200 acres in Fort Royal, Virginia, but it also has a campus at the Rock Creek Research Labs at the National Zoo. One of the programs mentioned here—the “Ancient DNA” project—is an ongoing endeavor. The researchers seek to study changing patterns of genetic variation over time by analyzing DNA collected from museum specimens and archaeological artifacts. Where this might lead—as well as the implication for our species—is fascinating. And it leaves lots of room for further exploration on an even grander scale.
    N ATIONAL M ALL T URF AND S OIL R ESTORATION . This is indeed an active project to restore the thirteen acres of heavily trafficked lawns. Since the current phase of this project has ripped up the acres that lie between the Smithsonian Castle and the National Museum of Natural History, I thought what better chance for an off-road chase scene, especially with the site’s towering piles of dirt and deep excavations, including the digging of a 250,000-gallon cistern to collect storm water.
    C HINESE H ACKERS. I T seems like seldom a week goes by that we don’t hear of a new cyber attack by Chinese agents, whether it’s the infiltration of the Office of Personnel Management or the theft of fighter jet schematics. But these incursions are not only to steal intellectual property; they’re also to compromise systems. Chinese cyber forces—which do number into the hundreds of thousands—have damaged systems aboard commercial ships and even an airline used by the U.S. And they have grown bolder of late, even sending operatives onto U.S. shores in an attempt to nab Chinese defectors, as reported by the president recently. As to the next level of attack, I believe it’s coming—soon.
    So that ends this tale—but as you might imagine, it’s only the beginning of a much larger story, an epic adventure like no other, one that will reveal a real-life archaeological mystery tied to Neil Armstrong, one that masks a monumental secret about the moon itself . . . all that, and also the introduction of a new character, unlike any seen in print before.

 
    So where will the creative genius of author James Rollins take us next?
    Drawing on—and stretching far beyond—the questions raised in The Midnight Watch, THE BONE LABYRINTH will reveal hidden truths of incredible significance that threaten national security today and will make you look at the world and our place in the universe with new eyes.
    Keep reading for a sneak peek at the greatest Sigma