A whispered secret in a Baghdad hotel lobby leads to Sam Packer's kidnapping, torture and expected execution. His paymasters have given him up for dead. Only the intervention of his ex-lover, Chrissie, and a hostage swap get him released. But
days later Chrissie is murdered. Perhaps she knew too much, knew of the secret Sam had uncovered - that a biological terror weapon codenamed Fire Hawk had been smuggled from Iraq for use against an unknown target in the West.
Personal motives of revenge clash with priorities of State Security as Sam follows the weapon's and his dead lover's murky past through the Middle East, Cyprus and the Ukraine. At each step the mystery of the ultimate target deepens and the
fanatics who control it become ever more elusive.
'The suspense is sizzling. Geoffrey Archer has again used his ITN experience in a sinuous mix of international threats that are coming to have the same chill-factor as the fear that underpinned the best Cold War thrillers' Daily Telegraph