With the walls closing in, Navy SEAL sniper James Reece is on a race to dismantle a conspiracy that has forced America to her knees in the latest high-octane page-turner that seems ripped from the headlines from the “hottest author on the thriller scene today” ( The Real Book Spy ), #1 New York Times bestseller Jack Carr. You think you know James Reece. Think again. A storm is on the horizon. America’s days are numbered. A Chinese submarine has gone rogue and is navigating towards the continental United States, putting its nuclear missiles within striking distance of the West Coast. A rising Silicon Valley tech mogul with unknown allegiances is at the forefront of a revolution in quantum computing and artificial intelligence. A politician controlled by a foreign power is a breath away from the Oval Office. Three seemingly disconnected events are on a collision course to ignite a power grab unlike anything the world has ever seen. The country’s only hope is a quantum computer that has gone dark, learning at a rate inconceivable at her inception. But during her time in hiding, she has done more than learn. She is now positioned to act as either the country’s greatest savior or its worst enemy. She is known as “Alice” and her only connection to the outside world is to a former Navy SEAL sniper named James Reece who has left the violence of his past life behind. Will there be blood? Count on it! Will the forces that threaten to destroy the United States be enough to light the fuse of Reece’s resurrection? Jack Carr is a former Navy SEAL who led special operations teams as a team leader, platoon commander, troop commander, and task unit commander. Over his twenty years in Naval Special Warfare, he transitioned from an enlisted SEAL sniper to a junior officer leading assault and sniper teams in Iraq and Afghanistan, to a platoon commander practicing counterinsurgency in the southern Philippines, to commanding a special operations task unit in the most Iranian influenced section of southern Iraq throughout the tumultuous drawdown of US Forces. Jack retired from active duty in 2016 and lives with his wife and three children in Park City, Utah. He is the author of The Terminal List , True Believer , Savage Son , The Devil’s Hand , In the Blood , Only the Dead , Red Sky Mourning , and Targeted: Beirut . His debut novel, The Terminal List , was adapted into the #1 Prime Video series starring Chris Pratt. He is also the host of the top-rated Danger Close podcast. Visit him at OfficialJackCarr.com and follow Jack on Instagram, X, Facebook, and YouTube @JackCarrUSA. Chapter 1 CHAPTER 1 Kumba Ranch Flathead Valley, Montana “YOU SURE YOU STILL want to do this?” Liz Riley asked the man in the left seat of the small vintage 1976 Lake Buccaneer amphibious aircraft. The plane floated comfortably on its hull at the western end of the lake, its fuel-injected 200-horsepower Lycoming IO-360 engine mounted atop the pylon behind the cockpit at idle. The big man next to her did not answer immediately. His eyes were focused ahead on the light ripples visible on the dark water. He tilted his head to the right, looking to the skies above. Blue with scattered clouds. Perfect flying weather. “You got this, Reece,” Liz said. Her voice was strong and confident, the southern accent a proud reminder of days lying in the grass in the backyard of her family’s house on the outskirts of Fort Rucker in Alabama, looking skyward, dreaming. The near-constant echoes of turning rotors from Black Hawk and Apache helicopters overhead had instilled in her a love of aviation. She would follow that passion into the Army’s Warrant Officer Flight Program and into the cockpit of an OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter. Injuries sustained in combat cut short her Army career but did nothing to diminish her love of flying. James Reece turned to his passenger, a passenger who in this case was also his flight instructor and dear friend, Elizabeth Riley. She looked perfectly at home in the confines of the aircraft, almost as if it had been built around her. It did help that she was a full seven inches shorter than Reece’s six-foot frame. Her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail under a crimson University of Alabama ball cap. Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses shielded her eyes from the glare. She was a professional in her element. “What?” she asked, prompting him to explain the look on his face. “You know, I intensely dislike flying.” “You tell me that every time,” Liz replied. “What you mean to say is, you ‘used to intensely dislike flying.’?” “Ah, that’s it,” Reece confirmed. “And, as I recall, it wasn’t necessarily the flying; it was the taking off and landing.” “Once again: true,” Reece said. “Just like jumping.” “Out of planes?” Liz asked. “Yeah. I always loved the actual jump. Not a big fan of the pull.” “Why?” “That was the moment of truth. Either that chute was going to open, or you were going to have a m