In this heart-pounding nautical action adventure, intrepid British intelligence operative Alex Hawke must thwart a secret, deadly alliance between China and France before they annihilate everyone and everything in their headlong rush towards world domination.Aboard the Star of Shanghai in the south of France, an American spy is held captive. He possesses vital, explosive intelligence linking two nations and one horrifying plot. If he is not rescued, he faces certain torture and inevitable death. In Paris, a ruthless descendant of Napoleon has risen to power, hell-bent on restoring France's former glory. His fiery ambitions are cynically stoked by a coterie of cold-blooded Mandarins, plotting behind the gates of Beijing's Forbidden City. Cloaked in secrecy, this unholy alliance devises a twisted global plan, backed by China's growing nuclear arsenal, that will send America and the world to the brink of a gut-wrenching showdown.British secret agent Alex Hawke must prepare to hurl himself deep into the nightmare visions of madmen. He will need all his strength and courage to defeat this enemy or else forfeit the lives of thousands, including his own, to an axis of evil no historian could ever have predicted.