Scott Rokeby, an American in his thirties, flies to Europe in a desperate search for his father, a retired Cold War warrior, who has suddenly disappeared and is later found murdered in mysterious circumstances. In London, he saves the life of Julie Dixon, a young journalist whose brother, a brilliant research scientist has also gone missing. Her investigations into smuggling, drug dealing and money-laundering have put her in terrible danger. A billion dollars in bearer bonds, protected by encryption codes and established by President Kennedy to support revolution among the vassal states of the Soviet Union has been stolen. A supergun has been developed capable of wreaking destruction on an unimaginable scale. The fear that it will fall into the hands of pariah states, terrorists or powerful neo-Nazi factions brings international tensions to the brink of war. Every step of Scott and Julie's quest bring them closer to the centre of a sinister web spun by a man determined to revenge himself on those who abandoned him to the living hell of the Soviet labour camps, a master criminal whose arms-trafficking operation reaches into the darkest corners of the globe.