Nicolas Creel is a man on a mission. He heads up the world's largest defense contractor, The Ares Corporation. Dick Pender is the man Creel retains to “perception manage” his company to even more riches by manipulating international conflicts. But Creel may have an even grander plan in mind.

Shaw, a man with no first name and a truly unique past, has a different agenda. Reluctantly doing the bidding of a secret multi-national intelligence agency, he travels the globe to keep it safe and at peace.

In this terrifying global thriller, these characters' lives will collide head-on as a series of events is set in motion that could change the world as we know it.

NicoLas Creel, a super-rich arms dealer, decides that the best way to boost his business is to start a new cold war - and he won't let anything or anyone get in his way.

As international tensions rise and the superpowers line up against each other, the Lives of three very different people will never be the same again. As intelligence agent Shaw. academic Anna Fischer and ambitious journalist Katie James are all drawn into Creel's games, can anything stop the world from spiralling out of control?

This terrifying global thriller delivers all the twists and turns, emotional drama, unforgettable characters and can't-put-it-down pacing that Baldacci fans expect - and still goes beyond anything he's written before.