Vin Cooper is hunting for a kidnap victim. Meanwhile the CIA is hunting for a missing nuclear bomb. Special Agent Vin Cooper has just returned from an off-books mission in the Congo. Now he's caught up in something even more dangerous... An ex-air force colleague has been kidnapped. His severed hand, with a demand for five million dollars, has found its way to Cooper's door - and he has just twenty-one days to pay. Cooper must track the missing man's movements from a topless revue in Vegas, to the favelas of Brazil and finally to the pirate-patrolled waters off Somalia. Meanwhile, the CIA are searching for a stolen thermonuclear device. Suddenly, Cooper's quest to find his friend becomes a journey to the heart of a chilling conspiracy. A journey that Cooper might not survive...