For years, the extralegal counterterrorist unit known as the Taskforce has worked in the shadows, anticipating and preventing attacks around the globe. Though wildly successful, it was rooted in a fear that the cure could be worse than the disease, and now that fear is realized. A Special Forces soldier is killed on an operation in Afghanistan, and complicit in the attack is a government official of an allied nation.

Includes excerpt from the author's Ring of fire (pages [465]-494).