History has its secrets, and someone wants them all. Behind six feet of steel, buried under the streets of Manhattan, lies the Black Chamber—a room that once housed a team of codebreakers who would one day help to found the NSA. “Imagine a writer that combines the best aspects of Cussler, Rollins, Berry, and Brown all into one. That’s Kevin Tumlinson.” —Ernest Dempsey, Author of The Forbidden Temple Abducted by a brutish professional killer, two physics professors are left with little food and limited air. Time is running out. Agent Roland Denzel and Dr. Liz Ludlum are led to a government-sealed room by an unseen figure, where they find a century-old manuscript filled with riddles. Is it the key to opening the Black Chamber? What other secrets does it hold? Dan Kotler returns in this codebreaking thriller, filled with enigmas, mysteries, and danger at every turn. Kotler must solve the Stepping Maze before time runs out ... for everyone. The Stepping Maze is the sixth full-length novel in the Dan Kotler Archaeological thrillers.