FACT: The Aral Sea area is the worst man-made ecological disaster in the history of the world and home to what once was the world's largest bioweapons lab. Quint and Dawson travel to Uzbekistan with their team to destroy a bioweapons cache before it falls into the hands of terrorists. Through their colossal blundering, the Russians have turned the worlds 4th largest lake into a toxic wasteland ruining the health of the locals with diseases ranging from anemia to cancer. With the sea shrinking, soon Renaissance Island will become a peninsula giving terrorists even easier access to the remaining cache of bioweapons which include anthrax, VX nerve agent, and the most terrifying: a genetically altered strain of small pox for which there is no method of prevention and no cure. Quint, Dawson, and the rest of the quirky characters from Wilem's previous two novels put their lives at risk to eliminate this threat. Dust storms, armed mercenaries, and some of the team's old enemies place obstacles in their path at every turn. In a race from Uzbekistan to the Arctic, not all of them will make it out unscathed or alive in their struggle against thugs, terrorists, and corrupt Russian soldiers.