Mohammed sits in a café in Vienna, preparing to propose a daring alliance. His network of agents and sympathizers in Europe and the Middle East is about to join forces with a Colombian's drug network in America. The potential for profits is enormous, and the potential for destruction is unimaginable.

In the shadows, a top-secret U.S. agency known as The Campus operates off the books, handpicked by President John Patrick Ryan. Among their ranks is Dominic Caruso, a rookie FBI agent, barely a year out of Quantico, whose decisive actions resolve a particularly brutal kidnap/murder case. His brother, Brian, is a Marine captain just back from his first combat action in Afghanistan, already a man to watch. And their cousin? None other than Jack Ryan, Jr.

Jack Ryan, Jr. was raised on intrigue. As his father ascended through the ranks of the CIA and into the White House, Jack received a life course in the way the world operates from agents, statesmen, analysts, Secret Service men, and black ops specialists like John Clark and Ding Chavez. But nothing has prepared him for the real-world danger he is about to face.