A ghost town burns in Nevada, and Alex Cross has four days to save four cities.
Who drives the story
FBI agent and psychologist, pulled off a San Francisco vacation with Jamilla Hughes into a global manhunt. He chases the Wolf from Nevada to London to Paris, loses family to the enemy's leverage, and cuts a nuclear device's wire with forty-seven seconds left.
A former KGB operative turned arms-dealing billionaire who vaporizes a Nevada town to open negotiations. He kills on camera, taunts Cross by name, and walks away from the wreckage alive.
A ruthless assassin with a hand-drawn weasel as his calling card, recruited from Mexico into the Wolf's plan. He arms the bomb in Canary Wharf and dies falling thirty-two stories after Cross throws him through a window.
Scotland Yard detective who tracks the Weasel's false passport into the UK and fights alongside Cross in the East End and at One Canada Square.
FBI director who yanks Cross back from vacation and, at the end, warns him the Wolf knows his name and his family.
Also in the story
Cross's grandmother, the anchor on Fifth Street, who greets him on the porch after the London near-miss.
Cross's son, whose eye for children's book references cracks the Wolf's dead-drop code on the recovered laptop.
FBI bomb expert who accompanies Cross to the leveled ruins of Rhyolite.
How they are connected
Alex CrossThe Wolf (Ruslan Fedorov)
He chases the Wolf from Nevada to London to Paris, loses family to the enemy's leverage, and cuts a nuclear device's wire with forty-seven seconds left.
Geoffrey Shafer, the WeaselThe Wolf (Ruslan Fedorov)
A ruthless assassin with a hand-drawn weasel as his calling card, recruited from Mexico into the Wolf's plan.
Martin LodgeGeoffrey Shafer, the Weasel
Scotland Yard detective who tracks the Weasel's false passport into the UK and fights alongside Cross in the East End and at One Canada Square.
Ron BurnsThe Wolf (Ruslan Fedorov)
FBI director who yanks Cross back from vacation and, at the end, warns him the Wolf knows his name and his family.
Ali CrossThe Wolf (Ruslan Fedorov)
Cross's son, whose eye for children's book references cracks the Wolf's dead-drop code on the recovered laptop.
Go deeper
Terror as negotiation · The personal cost of the badge · Networks of animals · Ordinary eyes against evil
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
Open the summary