It's a thriller right out of today's headlines, though it took place in the early nineties.

The theft of Soviet nerve gas weapons as the Cold War ends and the fate of a Special Operations helicopter mission to Iran set the stage for a thrill ride across continents as international chicanery gone wild seeks to restore dictatorial rule in the former Soviet republics. Can a disgraced Air Force colonel, a Belarus investigator framed for murder, and a spymaster suddenly left in the cold stop a disaster that will paralyze Washington?