An international thriller tracing the odyssey of a former RAF squadron leader--the last survivor of ten POWs repatriated by Iraq in April 1991, after the first Gulf War--and a Russian nuclear safeguards inspector as they strive to prevent the return of smallpox to a world with little immunity from the ancient scourge. The story unfolds from a mysterious radioactive cavern in northern Iraq to Austria, England, and across Europe, toward a deadly confrontation in the winter marshes north of St. Petersburg.