When an elderly professor at Cambridge is murdered, a victim of bizarre, ancient Chinese torture, Alex Hawke teams up with his MI6 colleague and friend Ambrose Congreve to find the killer. But the death is only the opening move in a tense and lethal game of geopolitical brinksmanship.

In the United States the president has begun behaving strangely. Is his mental health deteriorating—or is there something far more sinister behind his questionable moves? The answer is crucial, for tensions are mounting between China, North Korea and the U.S. A Chinese mega-yacht ferrying armed drones meant for a devastating terrorist attack is stopped in the nick of time. In the East China Sea, a North Korean patrol crew murdered four sailors on a U.S. Navy vessel. And now, China has launched fighter jets and a mega aircraft carrier vastly more sophisticated than any before—military technology superior to that which the U.S. and Great Britain possess.