Two weeks before the election - and presidential candidate Josh Alexander's motorcade is decimated by a terrorist bomb. Alexander survives the attack, although members of his entourage are not so lucky. It appears to be the work of al-Qaeda. But then CIA director Irene Kennedy is presented with classified information so toxic that she considers destroying it altogether. Instead she summons Mitch Rapp, the one man reckless enough to follow the evidence to its explosive conclusion. Entering the shadowy world of contract killers, Rapp pursues his unseen enemy through the darkest corners of the globe - until finally, back in Washington, the shocking truth behind the attempted assassination is revealed, and the fragile pillars of power are shaken to the core...