Publisher's Synopsis
A Story of Modern War... In the aftermath of America's wars in the Middle East, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran is scrambling for the means to defend itself. Their efforts to acquire nuclear materials are thwarted by the UN, and their income is constricted by sanctions on Iran's vast oil supplies. Seeking allies and trade partners they turn to the Russians and the Chinese. What they get is an international cabal of organized crime led by a man known only as Rannovich. Taking advantage of the corruption and Islamic radicalism of the Iranian government, Rannovich assumes effective control of the country. Using a network of military and industrial contacts, he builds a massive secret army and prepares to trigger the final war for control of the Middle East. An overworked CIA operative named Robert Cannon tries to warn the United States and head off the crisis, but it is already too late. On the other side of the world, Top Gun fighter pilot and former Navy SEAL Karl "Sharkey" Roche is deployed with the US Navy's most powerful aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, to confront the escalating threat. He is second-in-command of a new squadron flying the F/A-18 Super Hornet strike fighter jet. He leaves behind his new girlfriend and returns to another battle in a part of the world where he was nearly killed when he was in the SEALs. A chain reaction of shocking events pulls Iran, Iraq, Israel, China, Russia and finally the United States to the brink of a new world war. Casualties mount on all sides and America faces a nightmare scenario: a major war that threatens to go nuclear; a war they cannot finish quickly enough and absolutely cannot afford to lose. After Karl Roche leads a daring rescue to bring him out of the country, Cannon presents the only way out. The command bunker, from which Rannovich and Iran's leaders are orchestrating Armageddon, must be destroyed. The Bunker, however, is buried a thousand feet below a mountain. Desperate now, the Pentagon draws upon a Cold-War-era contingency plan calling for a supersonic fighter-bomber to punch a nuclear bomb into the bunker shaft by diving from maximum altitude and releasing the weapon at top speed. The dangerous maneuver demands the best attack plane in the world - the US Navy Super Hornet - and the best pilot, which happens to be Karl Roche. He has already won his nation's gratitude in harrowing combat in the air and on the ground. Now he must take on one final mission, leading the Reagan's entire air wing in a massive coordinated strike, and either end the war or die trying.
