The collapse of the Soviet regime with perestroika meant big trouble for the KGB, and rebellious groups of agents in the satellite countries have shaped a plan to resist Moscow's reforms. Portable, backpack-size nuclear weapons will be their key to success, and the weapons are safely hidden until Lena, a beautiful Russian physicist working in the US, raises the alarm. When Petrov, a nuclear weapons expert and the son of a KGB agent, goes missing with the chemicals needed to arm the weapons, Putin and the West are in a state of panic. Brandt Swindon, a CIA operative and ex-travel expert, and his CIA agent lover, Casey Stephens, are enlisted as part of a joint Russian/NATO team to find the weapons before disaster strikes