A secret raid on a mysterious aircraft hangar in the heart of Algeria. The crash of a transport plane on its way to the Ukraine. A violent robbery at a disused airfield in Bulgaria. A Russian fighter pilot found shot execution-style in lonely woodland. This sequence of apparently unconnected events leads trouble-shooter Paul Richter to Moscow, where an old adversary needs his help. For it seems the Russian government has a problem over inventory errors", but the truth is that someone"s been stealing their MiG-25 Foxbats - and they"ve no idea who, or why. On the far side of the world, alarm bells ring in the United States when North Korea launches an intercontinental ballistic missile. But it"s only when the Americans begin to mobilize their forces that the full extent of the threat becomes clear. And so Richter finds himself back in the pilot"s seat of a Harrier over North Korea, fighting his way past surface-to-air missiles and dodging supersonic interceptors...