Book excerpt: Duncan MacLeod, member of an age-old race of immortal beings, is in Paris helping a friend organize a museum exhibit of ancient cultures destroyed by the Romans. While unwrapping a priceless scroll of the Torah, Duncan remembers Avram Mordecai, a young Immortal who was determined to see the Romans defeated and the lands of Israel returned to the Hebrews. When Duncan meets Maral, a Palestinian delegate to the Arab-Israeli peace talks, he falls irrevocably in love. But as the tense negotiations unfold, Duncan realizes that Avram still lives--and he has not forgotten his holy war. Now Duncan is trapped between an old friend and the woman he loves.