The Devil's Protege. The Vatican Knights, #31

In Mindanao, Philippines, a terrorist faction holding members of the clergy hostage is summarily liquidated. On the same night in Manila, a separate team of sophisticated thieves with a considerable amount of military training enter a high-tech security facility to steal the coveted Scepter of Light, a staff once used by Saint Peter as he spread the Gospel of Jesus. In Greece, the buyer of the relic learns that the item he purchased for one hundred million in American funds had hit a hurdle, galvanizing his team to aid in the scepter's recovery in the Philippines. Kimball Hayden and his team of Vatican Knights, while in Makati, are tasked with locating the Scepter of Light and bringing it home.
However, there is a young protégé within the team, Jonah, a Vatican Knight who has a taste for blood and violence. Trying to navigate through two elite forces to attain the coveted scepter, Kimball Hayden must not only deal with the threat outside his unit but also with a deadlier force within, one that is far greater than he has ever confronted before. Outgunned, outmanned, and with one of their own as corrupt as he is blackened, will Kimball Hayden be able to turn his young protégé onto the path of Light, a path he himself blindly seeks, or will Jonah continue his march towards the Abyss alongside his mentor, Kimball Hayden? From bestselling author Rick Jones comes a new volume in the Vatican Knights series, now in global development to become a television series through Ileen Maisel of Amber Entertainment.