Scorpion

The head of Egypt's State Internal Security is brutally murdered in a Cairo café-his assailant a faceless killer known only as "the Palestinian." It is the opening move in a chilling game of terror that has caught the international intelligence community completely off-guard, and the CIA turns to the one man they believe can get to the twisted roots of a looming nightmare shrouded in mystery: a former Company operative code-named Scorpion. The breakneck hunt for a mastermind is leading Scorpion from the Middle East to the dangerous underworld of the capitals of Europe. With the fate of the free world in the hands of two well- matched adversaries there is no margin for error. But a shocking truth has been kept from the determined manhunter . . . and beauty will blind him to the ultimate betrayal.

In the frozen wastes of Siberia, a silver artifact is stolen from a dead man . . . In the Middle East, the carefully planned strike on a terrorist leader goes disastrously wrong . . . Two seemingly unrelated incidents have placed the former CIA covert operative-turned-freelance spy, code-named Scorpion, in a desperate position: joining forces with a beautiful woman to prevent the assassination of a powerful Ukrainian politician. But treachery breeds terror in the long shadow of a dangerous Russia, as Scorpion finds himself caught in a lethal trap sprung by an unknown enemy-perhaps someone on his own side of the game. And now time is ticking rapidly away with the whole world balancing on a knife's edge, just days from the opening salvos of a catastrophic war that could leave the earth itself in ruins.

In Switzerland, a brutally efficient hit squad storms the U.S. embassy, stealing classified files and leaving no witnesses alive. Under intense political pressure to find those behind the attack - with Congressional leaders demanding military action - the CIA turns to the deadliest agent they know: Scorpion. But Scorpion is unwilling to get involved...until he learns his name is at the top of one of the stolen lists. What Scorpion uncovers sends the CIA scrambling: evidence linking the attack to an unknown Iranian power broker known as "the Gardener." Scorpion follows the trail to Zurich and Barcelona, where he meets his match in Scale, an agent as lethal as the viper that is his namesake. A deadly dance of deception ensues, bringing Scorpion into Tehran's inner circle, but not even the political elite know who the Gardener is - or what his next move might be.