During a desperate attempt to rally support for a controversial Middle Eastern peace summit, U.S. Ambassador Christine Needham is kidnapped on an unauthorized visit to Dubai. Forced to walk a thin line between diplomacy and effectiveness, President James Talquin assembles a new covert team, helmed by black ops veteran Wayne Wilkins, to rescue the ambassador before she is executed by terrorists. But the ambassador is in possession of a dangerous secret about the Iranian nuclear program, one that, if not recovered in time, could lead to the most devastating terror attack in history.Now Wayne and his team are on a collision course with unseen forces that seem to be manipulating world powers toward a devastating conclusion. With a nuclear apocalypse just hours away, the operatives must confront a new kind of jihad, one that breaks all the rules of warfare and terrorism.But all of the players may not be what they seem, and with no one left to trust, the newly founded team must lean on each other to navigate the glittering heights and hidden depths of one of the world's most fascinating cities and infiltrate a centuries-old shadow war raging within Islam itself. As the twists and betrayals mount, it soon becomes clear that unless Wayne and his men can recover the ambassador and the secret she holds in time, the terrorists' enigmatic paymaster may get exactly what he wants: an all-consuming world war from which America and her allies would never recover.