They call the new virus H17N10, and it’s spreading rapidly. Of those exposed, forty percent become infected—ten percent die in agony. To create a vaccine for the virulent, rapidly mutating disease, the World Health Organization must find the original source of H17N10. All evidence suggests the virus began in heavily militarized, ultra-secretive North Korea. In North Korea itself, the health of dictator Kim Jong-il –the Dear Leader—slowly declines, leaving military and Communist Party leaders scrambling to solidify their power before the reins pass to Kim Jong-il’s youngest son, the Western-educated Kim Jong Un. Requests to access the viral outbreak’s origin point are repulsed, putting North Korea at odds with the United Nations, the US, and even the small country’s major ally, China. In response, a hostile North Korea plans a ballistic missile test to prove its determination to defend its borders. Unbeknownst to the world, one rogue general plans to launch the missile with a nuclear payload. Meanwhile, H17N10 continues to reach across the globe, killing as it spreads. Unless diplomacy triumphs over treachery and nationalistic saber rattling, humanity will find itself trapped between a deadly virus and nuclear war.