Russian hardliners and their counterparts in the Chinese Red Army would stop at nothing to get the reins of power beck in their hands. Before any government had time to react,the two cunning allies had put into motion the pincers of a two-pronged plan that would force the world to the brink of nuclear cataclysm. Their trump card: the SU-39.

RUSSIAN HARDLINERS

The cutting-edge Russian SU-39-Covert stealth bomber,with fighter capabilities years beyond anything the U.S.can produce, vanished while on a test run over the Gobi Desert. But it was no accident--the super weapon was plucked from the skies by Russian military leaders with their own private agenda--global power.

CHINESE TERRORISTS

Half a world away, a dissident faction of the Chinese Red Army engineered the brutal abduction of a top scientist visiting Washington from under the noses of his U.S.guardians. And with him went the secrets of his most recent triumph--the development of the SU-39.

ENEMIES UNITED

Commander T.C. Bogner had his orders: Retrieve the fighter and its designer within seventy-two hours, or the die would be cast for a high-tech war, the likes of which the world had never known.