On a desolate island deep within the Canadian Arctic, a scientific expedition photographs the wreckage of a bomber on a mountain glacier. The half-century old aeroplane seems to be a relic of the Cold War. Only a handful of insiders know that it still represents a major threat to civilisation, as the aircraft is a Soviet Air Force biological warfare platform, still armed with two tons of active weaponised anthrax. Covert-One's Lt. Col. Jon Smith is assigned to lead a team to secure the site. But on the island they find themselves confronted with a traitor from within their ranks. Cut off from all outside aid, the operatives must struggle against both betrayal and the brutal polar environment. Gradually they become aware that something else exists within the hulk of the ancient bomber: a secret potentially more devastating than even the plane's warload - and one that could bring about both a cataclysmic revision of global history and serve as the trigger for a Third World War...