Admiral Jake Grafton is working counter-terrorism in the wake of the September 11 attacks when Janos Illin--the highly placed Russian intelligence agent from AMERICA--delivers chilling news: a rogue general has sold four nuclear warheads to a radical Qaeda-affiliated terrorist faction. Smuggled out of Pakistan after a vicious firefight, the deadly weapons are believed to be headed for the United States. Taking the report to his superiors, Grafton is charged by the president with assembling a secret team and uncovering the plot before America's population centers are consumed in the flames of nuclear holocaust.

But with billions of dollars to be made in terrorism and counter-terrorism, a plot of this scale and sophistication draws investment from unlikely sources--some of these very close to home. And it soon becomes apparent that the Dark Age Jihadi terrorists are backed by a shadowy clique of tech-boom capitalists, disgruntled Cold Warriors, and money-grubbing traitors within America's intelligence community. They come from Russia, Egypt, and the United States. And whether they're in it because of lust for power, obsession with money, or all-consuming hatred, they are joined in a conspiracy so secret, so powerful, and so invisible that Grafton will need to mobilize every resource at his disposal to ensure the unthinkable does not become the inevitable . . . .

To that end, Grafton calls out his biggest guns, all familiar faces from previous Coonts bestsellers: the indomitable Toad Tarkington and CIA super-spy Tommy Carmellini. But he'll need more than that, and soon Grafton is reactivating old friends, contacts, and even enemies to form the most elite anti-terrorist team in history. Now, incorporating the most advanced spying technology with know-how, guts, and determination, Grafton's team must do the impossible: uncover a s20conspiracy that threatens civilization and stop it!