The world is falling apart and there are plenty of people willing to take advantage. One of them is Pavel Kazakov, a Russian oilman with close ties to organized crime and an audacious idea: build a huge pipeline through the Balkans, get the Russian army to back him and everybody gets rich. Though NATO will object, the new American President's emphatic policy of isolationism will guarantee no effective opposition. Russia will dominate Europe. Kazakov will dominate the oil supply. But Kazakov hasn't reckoned with Patrick McLanahan. The young Air Force general leads a combat mission deep into Russia - until he is put in check by the President himself. Soon McLanahan and his team find themselves faced with a dire choice. Which is the greater threat: the dangerous empire in front of them - or the dangerous President at home?