Piedmont Conspiracy

1943: Rome's Jewish population, so far untouched by the horrors farther north, lives in fear of the Nazis. With the Third Reich facing collapse, the Holy City's German occupiers offer the Jews the chance to ransom their own lives. Let the Jews of Rome pay $10 million in U.S. currency to the Germans and their safety will be assured. The Chief Rabbi of Rome, unable to raise such an amount from his community, knows the one man who might be able to arrange a loan - the Jewish head of the Vatican Finance. But the Vatican's reserves are low, and Pope Pius XII knows that every one of "Peter's Pence" will be needed after the war, so he proposes another solution. He sends a trusted young priest to America to borrow the money from a very special donor. The mission is successful, and $10 million in cash is brought to Rome in steamer trunks. But the German occupiers never receive the money, and with terrible speed and efficiency the Jews are packed into trains heading north to the death camps. A malevolent seed, watered with the blood of the Jews, begins to germinate deep inside the Holy See: the Piedmont Conspiracy. 1996: Elliot Bradford, president of FINVEST, a financial investigative firm, finds himself entangled in a web of murder and crime. Seeking an explanation for the tragic suicide of his mentor and the death of his own wife and child, Bradford embarks on a journey of terror, aided by a beautiful corporate spy, a Jesuit priest, and a tough New York cop dedicated to stopping the Piedmont Conspiracy.