Journalist Katarina Mironova, known around the world as Kato, is found shot to death on the banks of Russia's Techa River. She could simply fade from the public eye, one more journalist killed during Putin's war on the free press. But to Russian agent Alexei Volkovoy, her murder haunts him in too many ways to allow her death go unavenged. Volk's investigation takes him from Moscow to Mayak, where a massive nuclear explosion occurred in 1958, and finally to Las Vegas, as the life he has known with his lover, Valya, and his patron, the General, slowly unravels. Meanwhile, American contract agent Grayson Stone and shadowy French assassin Jean-Louis have secrets about a nuclear alliance among venal Russian, American, and French politicians...secrets the Americans and the French will pay anything to protect.... Brent Ghelfi is the author of Volk's Game, Volk's Shadow and The Venona Cable. His novels have been translated into eight languages and optioned for film. www.brentghelfi.com