After a long career in aerospace, Logan Fletcher is looking forward to a quiet, relaxing retirement. But when an unusual news story catches his eye, he begins to suspect that terrorists are using plans and tactics stolen from his wife Cathie's novels and turning them into grim, bloody reality. Logan contacts an old friend, Chuck Johnson, an aging CIA agent, and the two concoct a bold plan to trap the terrorists by baiting Cathie's latest novel. But Logan and Chuck are unaware that the jihadists they are hunting are receiving money and intel from a powerful Chinese industrialist and his beautiful, sociopathic daughter, bent on destroying U.S. world dominance. The cell has an additional edge: the services of a long-missing U.S. Special Forces operator, Jason Stone, who has turned, and is now directing attacks with savage efficiency. Haunted by his shattered loyalties and a critical, unfinished mission from his past, Stone plans his next moves, which are destined to put him on a collision course with Chuck and Logan . . .