When a sample of smallpox from Russia's cache of bioweapons is smuggled into the United States, Jon Smith and his colleagues must unravel the mystery of the Cassandra Compact and recover or destroy the virus - before the power of Armageddon falls into the hands of a madman.

An explosion in the middle of the night reduces part of Paris' esteemed Pasteur Institute to rubble. Among the missing is the world's top computer scientist, Emile Chambord. Even though a terrorist group claims responsibility for the bombing, many in the intelligence community suspect the scientist was actually kidnapped and the bomb set to divert attention. Chambord may have been close to devising a working molecular computer which, in the wrong hands, could be the most deadly weapon in the world. If he were now in the hands of hostile forces, the consequences would be unspeakably dire.

On the dark waterside docks of Shanghai, a photographer is recording cargo being secretly loaded when he's brutally killed and his camera destroyed. Shortly thereafter Covert-One director Fred Klein brings the word to the President that there's a Chinese cargo ship rumored to be carrying tons of chemicals to be used by a rogue nation to create new biological weapons. Klein is ordered to get the President solid proof of what the Chinese ship is ferrying.

The Lazarus Movement, the dominant force in the eco-conscious, "anti-technology" protest movement, has sent rumblings down the halls of the world's intelligence agencies. Led by a mysterious, never-seen figure known only as Lazarus, this increasingly prominent group is believed by some to be preparing a bold strike.

An attack on a Japanese warship brings Japan and China to the brink of war. Meanwhile, top Covert-One operative Colonel Jon Smith is sent on a mission to recover mysterious material from the wreckage of the Fukushima nuclear reactor. When Smith fails to return, CIA agent Randi Russell heads off on an unsanctioned mission to find him. She quickly discovers that the missing samples may be evidence that Japan, led by hawkish military chief of staff Masao Takahashi, has been secretly developing next-generation weapon systems in preparation for a conflict with China.