Newly elected as President, domestic pitfalls await Jack Ryan around every corner. Now, in Moscow, someone may have tried to take out the chairman of the SVR - the former KGB - with a rocket-propelled grenade. Even more disturbing is the potential identity of the assassin. Were they political enemies, the Russian Mafia, disaffected former KGB? Or, Ryan wonders, is something far more dangerous at work here?

He is right to wonder. For even while Russian investigators pursue the case, forces in China are moving forward with a plan of truly audacious proportions. If they succeed, the world as we know it will never look the same. If they fail. . . the consequences may be unspeakable.