DR. MATHEW SLATER "(POV)", a behaviors analyst with the FBI, a loaner and adrenalin junky, is disenchanted with his job and resigns to seek adventure in fighting global terrorism. The September 11th, 2001 terrorist attack on New York forces congress to reorganize the FBI and the newly appointed Chief of the Counterterrorism Division, Andrew Hunt, invites Matt to rejoin as a counterterrorist specialist to solve international crime. Multilingual, SAS trained, powerfully built with yearning to work overseas, Matt accepts the new job and goes to Saudi Arabia on his first mission to solve a murder of an American family and abduction of their two-year old son, Nathan. The FBI suspects Al Qaeda behind the abduction and fears that more American families may face similar fate and their children may be used to bargain the freedom of militants behind bars in Saudi Arabia.

Unbeknown to Matt, the CIA unearths a plot by Al Qaeda to use a nuclear device in their next attack on the USA. The CIA hides this discovery from the FBI and lays an unsuccessful bated trap to allow Sheikh Osama, the leader of Al Qaeda and mastermind of New York terrorist attack to take uranium to the Iraqi leader so that they both could be apprehended red handed.

Meanwhile Matt is successfully countering the bureaucratic Saudi police who are hampering his work. Matt discovers a critical clue, deliberately suppressed by the Saudi police, of a message left behind on the car by the murderer that confirms the FBI's fears of Al Qaeda's involvement in the abduction of Nathan. Nasser Hussein, a Syrian born, Saudi citizen and an officer with Saudi Central Intelligence Division convinces Matt to choose him as a partner.

Another murder of an American family and abduction of their four-year old daughter takes place in Abu Dhabi on the day the allied forces unleash their wrath on Afghanistan. The murderer leaves behind a similar message on the victim's car. Matt is allowed to investigate both cases but he is perturbed to find that the police officer in-charge of the Abu Dhabi case is Nasser's cousin. Matt suspects foul play. He finds ways to work on his own and makes a startling discovery that a critical evidence of DNA profile that could identify the killer has been stolen. Matt finds a lead and visits a member of the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) in Cyprus who provides a photographic proof that Nathan is with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

A sensual, free-spirited, and stunning American doctor called Sophie who is indirectly involved in the disappearance of the DNA evidence flirts with Matt and reveals her secrets during romantic escapades. Matt successfully uses his psychoanalysis skills to learn from her that Nasser's cousin is behind the disappearance of the DNA evidence. She promises to help and offers to find the missing DNA report and try run it against the DNA profile of Nasser's cousin.

Matt is asked to spend a couple of days with a CIA operative who has applied for a job with the counterterrorism division of the FBI. Matt meets with him in Abu Dhabi and makes a chilling discovery of nuclear bomb that is to be used against the USA by Al Qaeda and Iraqis and that the Sheikh Osama is personally responsible for the nuclear project.

Matt with reassigned priorities to retrieve uranium from Al Qaeda leaves for Afghanistan via Pakistan. Once in Pakistan he meets beautiful Shama, a member of RAWA. Matt saves her life from a murderous mob of religious militants and she and her brother offers to help him in his endeavor to find the Sheikh.

Matt is parachutes into Afghanistan and seeks help from an underground resistance group in Kabul. Northern...