If New York Police captain Nikki Heat is acting like she's seen a ghost, it's for good reason. Her mother, Cynthia, presumed dead for seventeen years, has resurfaced-but the threat that made her go into hiding is as grave as ever.

Halfway across the world, CIA superspy Derrick Storm, on the trail of a nefarious group of Chinese businessmen known as the Shanghai Seven, trips over a long-ago recording of one of Cynthia's phone calls. It seems Cynthia Heat's past and the Shanghai Seven's present have merged. And so have the fortunes of two dogged investigators.

Nikki Heat and Derrick Storm unite for the first time-and they'll need all their considerable skills to stop a villain who has the resources and ruthlessness to kill them both.