July 5, 2018, Masini, Uganda: 218 people are massacred when the Lord’s Resistance Army attacks an undefended hospital. Among them are thirty-two American volunteers.

September 12, UN Security Council: the United States announces its plan to eradicate the Lord’s Resistance Army once and for all. But it will mean military intervention in China’s African sphere of influence. The message from the Chinese is to keep out.

October 17, Wall Street: after a trio of high-flying traders hatch a secret plan to make a killing by undermining the share price of a certain New York–based bank, stock prices tumble as a wave of uncertainty sweeps the US markets. Memories of the collapse a decade earlier are still fresh, and Washington is prepared to do what it takes to prop up America’s banks. But the government’s concern is that this time the turmoil is orchestrated—that someone is deliberately undermining the US markets. Are these completely unrelated incidents, or the opening moves in a much larger confrontation between two superpowers?

With hawks and hardliners on both sides keen to provoke conflict, the crisis escalates inexorably. American diplomat Marion Ellman must defuse the situation before it’s too late. Will the world’s two superpowers pull back from the brink, or is worldwide catastrophe inevitable? The author once again takes us behind the scenes in the worlds of high finance and international diplomacy in this sharply intelligent follow-up to his internationally praised debut novel, Ultimatum.