Veteran TV correspondent Peter Dees--hard-living, wisecracking, hungry for a scoop--seizes upon a story that could rock the world. Deep behind volatile Middle Eastern borders, a madman is stockpiling a lethal arsenal of chemical weapons. And someone on the outside is helping him. But as Dees tears back the layers of intrigue, his sources, many of them friends, begin to die--shot in the head, a bullet to the left eye.

From Port-au-Prince and Cairo to the scorched deserts of Saudi Arabia and Iraq, Dees finds the conspiracy much deeper than he ever imagined. For it seems that everyone--even the U.S. government--is hiding deep, damning secrets. His search for answers propels him into the very heart of a death-charred war zone. And the closer Dees gets to the truth, the likelier it becomes that he will never live to report it. . . .