In the 10th Alex Cross book, the now-FBI agent races the clock as he confronts two prior nemeses in a chilling scenario that threatens both the world at large and him personally. Armed men brusquely and brutally evacuate the small Nevada town of Sunrise Valley, which is subsequently obliterated by a fuel-air bomb. This action marks the opening salvo in a ploy by the vicious Russian mobster known as the Wolf (the villain from the previous Cross novel, THE BIG BAD WOLF). Aided by British murderer Colonel Geoffrey Shafer, aka "the Weasel," the Wolf heads a cabal of terrorists threatening to bomb several major world cities if their ransom demands, which total several billion dollars, are not met within the next four days. Tapped to head an international task force dedicated to foiling this sinister plot, Alex Cross quickly learns that the Wolf and the Weasel's plans also include personal revenge against Cross himself.