Commander Bryn Gideon and the crack Australian 'Redback Retrieval Team' rescue hostages from Pacific island rebels. American journalist Scott Dreher, researching computer war-game training, uncovers links between Western government agencies and known terrorist groups.

Meanwhile ritual killings in London and Tokyo, a bomb on a European train, an assassination on an Australian beach, and an attack on a US army base have half the world on high alert. The question is: are these incidents the work of isolated opportunistic terrorists, or part of something more sinister?

Gideon's Redbacks join the race to expose the ultimate conspiracy of a truly evil force; one that plays both sides of the terror divide against each other.