2000 B.C.--A beautiful, ambitious angel stands on a mountaintop smiling, because soon the last of humanity who survived the great flood will meet its end, too. And he should know. He's going to play a big part in it. But when he reaches for the instrument of humanity's doom, he can't find it. Looking over the Earth at all that could have been, the majestic angel utters a single word: "Crap."

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2015 A.D.--Coop, a thief specializing in purloining magic objects, steals and delivers a small box to the mysterious client who engaged his services. Coop doesn't know that his latest job could be the end of him--and the rest of the world--and will propel him into the company of the Department of Peculiar Science, a fearsome enforcement agency that polices the odd and strange. The box isn't just a supernatural heirloom with quaint powers, the Peculiar agents tell him. It's doomsday itself. Or a bomb. Or something. They're not really sure . . .

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And suddenly, everyone is out to get it.