Hayden Stone

After a mission in Afghanistan leads to the death of a colleague, CIA agent Hayden Stone accepts what he thinks is a cushy assignment in the South of France. But on the Côte d'Azur, two terrorists, acting separately, attempt to murder him. Meanwhile, Stone meets an old love, a contessa, who he had seduced and abandoned years before. As Stone's love life heats up, he learns that a brutal Middle Eastern terrorist is in Provence to deliver a strain of the Ebola virus to major US cities. At the same time, the CIA and French intelligence have targeted a seriously ill al Qaeda functionary who is seeking medical attention in Nice. Caught up in a web of international intrigue, Stone finds himself on the front lines of the War on Terror.

In the savannahs of Namibia, a boxcar sits, locked and watched. There is no limit to how many people would die from what's inside. And there is no limit to how many people would kill for it. Hayden Stone is summoned back to the CIA to help navigate the choppy diplomatic waters between the United States, Canada, England, South Africa, and any number of other players in a mission to prevent the worst of weapons from falling into the wrong hands. While representatives from other countries are there to help him, Stone knows the only person he can trust is himself, and that once the weapon is located, all bets are off. His mission will take him into palatial mansions and parched-earth slums, into the shadowy world of black ops and the chaos of an endless war. It will lead him directly into the crosshairs-but whose finger is on the trigger?

CIA operative Hayden Stone has his work cut out for him. Abdul Wahab seeks to make a power grab in the exotic land of Yemen and establish a terrorist base from which to launch an attack on Europe. Wahab lures Stone to Yemen by kidnapping his partner CIA officer Sandra Harrington in Sicily. Stone comfortably operates in this world where tribal leaders vie for power with the central government, al Qaeda exerts its influence through murder and mayhem, and double-dealing among Bedouin and townspeople is a national pastime. And the light from the merciless desert sun can cloak the most potent of weapons. The cat and mouse game goes from the capital Sana'a, to the deserts in the far east of the country, and to the mountain villages in the north. Stone has a personal stake in this mission, but can never keep his eye off of the greater plot developing, the one that puts millions in peril, and that only he can stop.