While on the trail of a stolen tactical nuclear weapon, Jack Sigler, call sign King, and his black ops Chess Team answer a cry for help. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is on the verge of exploding into another bloody civil war that will engulf all of Africa and put millions at risk, a crisis too politically volatile for any outside nation to touch. As the team, unfettered by political constraints, deploys across the globe, the threats spin out of control.

In 1959, nine hikers of the Dyatlov expedition perished while crossing a remote mountain range in the Soviet Union. More than sixty-five years later, the circumstances surrounding their deaths remain a mystery. In 1995, Julie Sigler was killed in an Air Force training exercise crash, but the circumstances of her death are never called into question... until she appears on TV, twenty years later, standing beside the current President of the United States.

Jack Sigler, call sign King, field leader for a black ops organization known as Endgame, is accustomed to feeling capable of handling most any situation. It is a confidence forged in the fires of battle against both monsters and madmen. But the introduction of Asya, a sister he never knew existed, and the kidnapping of his parents has him reeling.

Screams come next. Then the hunters. With a staccato flicker, the light disappears and everything within a hundred-yard radius goes with it. A massive crater is all that remains where a chunk of the world has gone missing. As the deadly phenomenon repeats and expands amidst the world's most densely populated cities—carving apartment buildings in half, scooping away entire city blocks, and claiming thousands of lives—Jack Sigler, call sign King, and his black ops team take action.

When a raid on an insurgent safehouse reveals a clue to decoding the world's most mysterious manuscript—and possibly a recipe for creating the ultimate weapon of mass destruction—Delta operator Jack Sigler must forge a new black ops team to avert catastrophe, a team of deadly warriors with dangerous secrets—the Chess Team.