FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Yuri Danko, a deep-cover Russian asset for Covert-One, is on the run. His last communication was a cryptic and urgent plea for extraction. With no hint of what sudden danger Danko encountered or information he uncovered that could have driven him to such extreme action, Covert-One operative Jon Smith is sent to the pre-arranged meeting place with instructions to bring Danko out. Ten days later, in Venice, Danko arrives breathless and bedraggled at Jon Smith's table at an outdoor cafe. But he barely opens his mouth before his body is ripped apart by a spray of assassins' bullets. Smith, eluding the hail of bullets, gives chase - only to witness the assassins themselves falling prey to a brutal execution. With only the scant clues left behind by Danko to go on, Jon Smith and Covert-One quickly conclude that someone is out to do the unthinkable - attempt to steal Russia's store of the smallpox virus. Now completely eradicated, smallpox is the deadliest of viruses and could well cause an epidemic of an undreamed-of scale should it be released in the general population. Smith and his Covert-One colleagues try to prevent the virus from being stolen. But their unseen adversaries are several steps ahead of them, and the virus is en route to the United States. Now they must unravel the complex scheme, overcome their powerful and invisible opponents, and recover or destroy the virus before the power of total Armageddon rests comfortably in the arms of a madman."--BOOK JACKET.

SYNOPSIS

Someone is trying to steal Russia's store of a long-vanquished deadly disease, and Lt. Colonel Jon Smith, with the help of Covert-One, must stop the conspirators before they loose Armageddon upon the world.

Lt. Col. Jon Smith, a medical researcher, is contacted by Russian colleague with a strange request that he meet him in Venice in ten days. When he does so, no sooner does Smith sit down than his colleague is killed by a hail of bullets. But not before he passes on to Smith intelligence that someone is about to steal some of Russia's stash of the smallpox virus. A long-vanquished disease, smallpox only exists in storage at two research centers, one in the US and one in Russia. Smallpox, however, is astonishingly virulent and there isn't nearly enough vaccine available should there be an outbreak. Even worse, the vaccine stores on hand are very old.

At the request of Covert-One - an agency so secret and loosely organized that it has no building, no org chart, no salaries, and reports only to the sitting President, Jon Smith starts to track down who is after the smallpox vaccine and find out what they plan to do with it. But his adversaries are several steps ahead of him. They have already spirited the vaccine out of the heavily guarded research center and are bringing it to a research lab where they will genetically alter it to create one of the most deadly chemical weapons ever. With a cabal of generals and key figures in the military industrial complex working to develop the weapon, Smith must find and stop the conspirators before they loose Armageddon upon the world.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly