Kurt Austin, NUMA Special Assignments team leader, and his colleague Joe Zavala are used to battling against eco-extortionists and mad empire builders, but they have never faced a menace like this one In the heart of the old Soviet Union, a mining tycoon has proclaimed himself Czar of Russia Claiming Romanov ancestry and backed by billions of dollars, he is determined to overthrow the already shaky Russian government - and US opposition doesn't bother him one bit A little crisis of their own should distract the Americans for a while, and he knows just the thing