Book excerpt: Rhodes: part five of a fast-paced serialised novel set in the turbulent Europe of the fifteenth century. A young Englishman, Tom Swan, has been ordered by his Cardinal to find a spy - a traitor. At the same time, a rich merchant has offered him a great deal of money to - well, to steal something. Something that belonged to Alexander the Great. Suddenly he's not a thief or a merchant or a scholar: he's a 'donat' or volunteer with the Knights of St John, the famous 'Hospitallers', and he's in the middle of a losing battle to hold the Aegean against the Turks. He'd like to steal the ring, kiss the girl and catch the spy, but there's a war on...