It’s the follow-up to an explosive start Zero Hour, Shifting Power laid down in the Before the End Series. The Great Deception opens up with a skirmish in the skies over Westover Complex. Operation Switchblade is in full swing over Sector Six airspace. Meanwhile President Alexander Toporvsky along with his National Security Council of the Free Republic of North America safely watch the pandemonium over Western LA from the safe confines of The Basement deep below FRN’s capital in Honolulu. On the other side of the world throughout the Middle East, the effects of what’s happening in the Western Hemisphere are felt in a variety of ways. The United Islamic Caliphate and their leader, King Rehan Kahlil still await their coming messiah, the Mahdi. A messenger named Jabour suddenly comes with news for the king that the Mahdi is indeed walking the face of the earth and that he will establish his kingdom very soon--with one small catch. In Israel, the story follows the Markov family through the lives of thirteen-year-old Azriel, his father Seth Markov, and an evil uncle Ephraim who has nefarious purposes for Azriel. How will this tale with its many twists and turns end? Many exciting and diverse subplots each with separate timelines all coalesce together to make up the mosaic of the Before the End Series.