An apocalyptic thriller from an exciting hot talent During the dog days ofthe USSR, desperate Russian scientists fought to create a weapon thatcould preserve the balance with the US - one that no sophisticated defencesystem could stop. They turned to one of the oldest killers of all -Smallpox. Modifying it to evade the human immune system, they createdsomething so destructive that even they realised that it could never beused. The disease - codenamed HUNTER - was left to rot in an obscure labin the heart of Russia as the Soviet state collapsed around it. But now adisgruntled former Russian scientist has defected to a shadowy group ofterrorists and has taken passage to the Middle East in a rusty freighterfull of so-called freedom fighters. In his case is stored one test tube ofthis new plague. Out of fear and anger, he has sold his soul to the devil.And in the midst of the worst storm in the history of the Mediterranean,only two men can stop him. Commander William Steadman of the attack boatUSS Portland and Captain Rem Reonov of the Russian Akula class submarineGepard hold the fate of the world in their hands. The trouble is theirmasters refuse to recognize that they're on the same side and they mayhave to destroy each other before capturing the ship... But what no-oneknows, least of all the hapless terrorists on the freighter, is thatHUNTER is already free on the boat and that the end of the world isalready upon them...