In November 2002, before the invasion of Iraq, the CIA responds to a report from a highly placed British spy about an Iraqi operation to recover and sell nerve gas to terrorists, by dropping Jan Vandermeer into a remote valley in northeast Iraq to determine whether or not the report is correct. He discovers that the lake at the head of the valley is contaminated with VX nerve gas. Using Predator surveillance, the CIA watches the Iraqis recover a canister of the gas and deliver it to the initial transporters. Now the CIA must make a decision - destroy the gas before it moves out of Iraq or let it proceed to protect the source of the report as well as to try to roll up the network of terrorists engaged in moving it to its ultimate but unknown destination. The decision to track the gas requires a team of CIA and British agents as well as the National Security Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office. Vandermeer and his Iraqi partner, the beautiful Sophia, are assigned leading roles in the operation. An intensive two-week battle of wits follows, taking Vandermeer and Sophia on a gripping journey through the deepest recesses of the Middle East toward what they come to believe is the final target in the United States.
