What if the world was faced with a terrorist's nuclear threat, and there was no top secret agent with super-human, near-telepathic abilities standing by? What if the best people for the job were actually the laboratory scientists who had developed the appropriate diagnostic equipment? What if the decision-makers were bureaucrats who were possibly more concerned with their political careers than they were with the actual outcome?

What if the bad guys weren't motivated by an evil desire to control the world but by circumstance and the need to provide for their families-and the device wasn't a globe-destroying hydrogen bomb but a dusty, misplaced remnant of the Cold War?

In other words, what if the threat was real?

Guided to its termination by three distinctly different ideologies, the convergence of a series of events culminates in September, 1995, with six scientists sitting in silence deep within the Parisian catacombs, staring at an armed rogue nuclear weapon. With tens of thousands of lives hanging in the balance, they are awaiting a decision from the Control Point-a decision that they are increasingly beginning to fear might not come in time.

All heads turned as the device started to click.

What if the world was faced with a terrorist's nuclear threat, and there was no top secret agent with super-human, near-telepathic abilities standing by? What if the best people for the job were actually the laboratory scientists who had developed the appropriate diagnostic equipment? What if the decision-makers were bureaucrats who were possibly more concerned with their political careers than they were with the actual outcome?

What if the bad guys weren't motivated by an evil desire to control the world but by circumstance and the need to provide for their families-and the device wasn't a globe-destroying hydrogen bomb but a dusty, misplaced remnant of the Cold War?

In other words, what if the threat was real?

Guided to its termination by three distinctly different ideologies, the convergence of a series of events culminates in September, 1995, with six scientists sitting in silence deep within the Parisian catacombs, staring at an armed rogue nuclear weapon. With tens of thousands of lives hanging in the balance, they are awaiting a decision from the Control Point-a decision that they are increasingly beginning to fear might not come in time.

All heads turned as the device started to click.