The Pope lies dying...and deep within the Vatican, ambition and intrigue see beneath the surface. The Pope is dying. An unholy civil war breaks out as a secret militant group of ultra-conservative Catholic clerics start their bloody campaign to ensure their man takes his seat in the Vatican. They call themselves The Remnant, and they take no prisoners as they begin their attacks on any liberal clerics who might thwart their plans to start a new Crusade against Islam. Enter Irish-born Father Michael Flaherty, a former U.S. Marine, currently based in upstate New York. Alerted by his close friend--a New York City police detective--that the deaths of radical clergy in Manhattan have been linked to a man who has fled to Rome, Flaherty goes on the hunt, a task made all the more deadly because both sides wear the same uniform. In the shadow of the Pope's final days, a showdown in the Vatican catacombs looms in this dexterous religious thriller.