Mossad assassinations of Iranian nuclear experts, debilitating international sanctions, computer viruses tailored to disrupt uranium enrichment facilities, other acts of sabotage, and threats of all-out war by the U.S. escalate and push extremist rulers within the Islamic Republic of Iran to the point of frenzied desperation and insane impatience in their quest to construct the ultimate weapon of horror. Despite the risks of feeding Iran's ravenous appetite for plutonium, Nikolai Volkov of the Russian "mafiya" devises a plan to reap obscene profits by hijacking a cache of weapons-grade material for sale in the Middle East. The mafiya is thwarted in its efforts until it tricks a brilliant but naive teenage hacker, Kent Dalton, into picking the digital locks securing stockpiles of fissile materials. In a cascade of intrigue, the fate of the world suddenly hangs in the balance as the mafiya, the hacker, and the governments of Russia, America and Iran scratch and claw for control of the most dangerous and powerful element on Earth.