FACT: The Aral Sea area is the worst man-made ecological disaster in the history of the world and home to what once was the world's largest bioweapons lab. Quint, Dawson, and their team rush to Uzbekistan to destroy a bioweapons cache before it falls into the hands of terrorists. With the Aral Sea shrinking, Renaissance Island will soon become a peninsula giving terrorists easy access to anthrax, VX nerve agent, and most terrifying: a genetically altered strain of small pox for which there is no method of prevention and no cure. The quirky characters from Wilem's previous two novels face dust storms, armed mercenaries, and some of the team's old enemies who place obstacles in their path at every turn. In a race from Uzbekistan to the Arctic, not all of them will make it out unscathed or alive in their struggle against thugs, terrorists, and corrupt Russian soldiers.