Decades ago, when he was a young CIA analyst, President Jack Ryan, Sr. was sent on a mission to investigate the death of an operative who had been looking into suspicious banking activities at a Swiss bank. Ryan's dogged tenacity uncovered not only financial deceit, but also the existence of a KGB assassin, code-named Zenith. He was never able to find the killer. In the present, a new strongman has emerged in the ever-chaotic Russian republic - the enigmatic President Valeri Volodin. His rise to power was meteoric, but shrouded in deception and treachery. For he has set in motion a plot to return Russia to its former glory and might, with the rest of the world once again trembling in fear of the mighty Bear. When an old friend of the Ryans is poisoned by a radioactive agent, the trail leads to Russia. And Jack Ryan, Jr. must delve into an international conflict thirty years in the making, and finish what his father started. With President Ryan fighting a desperate campaign to thwart Russian aggression, and his son fighting a silent war against a ruthless foe, the chances for global conflict grow ever greater and the possibility of survival may soon be lost for all.