The world is more volatile, unpredictable, and dangerous than ever before. To stop the architect of this chaos, Dempsey is given the most dangerous tasking of his career ... a mission only he can complete against an adversary he must face alone.

After Task Force Ember's successful intervention in Ukraine, John Dempsey disappears without a trace--with no notice or explanation given to his teammates. Spotty intelligence eventually places him in Russia where he is rumored to have been captured by the Russian FSB and is now presumed dead. Mourning his loss, Ember is forced to pick up the pieces, restructure, and continue their mission of keeping America safe. As the president's "go-to" black ops asset, Ember is directed to find and finish off the Russian spymaster Arkady Zhukov and any last remnants of Zeta cell.

Unbeknownst to his teammates, Dempsey is very much alive and on mission. At the behest of Vice President Jarvis, he is deep undercover--in the heart of Russia's nexus of organized crime and politics. For his mission to succeed, he will have to team up with a man who has been his adversary--the one man in all the world he most wants dead. The risks are higher than ever as Dempsey pursues a high-stakes plot of Russian regime change. And if he fails, the Kremlin's retribution will be swift and terrible and certain to drag the world into World War III.