With a war raging, communications were hamstrung for Mid East CIA agent Leon Loeb.The abducted Vercandi girl didn't stand a chance of survival at the hands of the rebels. If the Hakeemi didn't kill her, the Empty Quarter would. Nothing could survive the hottest, driest place on earth. He'd all but written her off when something beyond comprehension changed Loeb's mind.The girl's cry for help in the center of his brain shook Loeb to the roots of his being.Now he had to find her, and he'd use up everyone around him to do so—including the man he'd been sent to extract, diplomat Nathan Vercandi.Something stunk about this action from the start, but nothing else mattered now. His keepers' duplicity seemed irrelevant compared to the things Loeb needed to discover about himself.At the height of an Arabian summer he'd have to achieve the impossible—fly into the hellish wasteland of Rub al-Khali and get her out alive...or die trying.