With the sound of bursting metal, the International Space Station becomes a tumbling, powerless hulk and a tomb for its crew. As NASA prepares the Space Shuttle Endeavour in a desperate attempt to rescue the surviving astronauts, the question remains; was the cataclysm the result of a random collision with a piece of space junk, or a deliberate attempt to render it helpless? With the crime scene orbiting the planet some five hundred kilometers up, the truth may be found in a mathematical model and the terrorist who possesses it-a game of calculations that could cripple western civilization and topple America. As the countdown continues, Jake McSorley, former veteran and defense marketeer now living off the spoils of his family's aerospace company, becomes convinced that the million-pound Space Station has been the victim of sabotage. In six days the Station will cross paths with a dead rocket body, risking a collision that could create a massive cloud of speeding debris sweeping through space, grinding up the satellite systems the modern world has come to depend upon and eviscerating America's ability to defend itself. Science fiction or science fact-the reality lies in a Cold War test of a space warfare system hidden in a software game. Jake, whose father's company has been helping NASA put astronauts into space for more than forty years, is no scientist, but thanks to a run-in with an IED in Afghanistan he has a sixth sense when it comes to knowing when things aren't what they appear. And with the woman he loves about to ride Endeavour on its rescue mission to the Station, the countdown is ticking to discover the truth. But, learning what was done is far less dangerous than knowing who did it, and as Jake pursues the mystery the conspirators begin methodically and gruesomely cleaning up after themselves. Pursued by killers, he crosses the law and soon the FBI is after him, too, as he races to learn the secret of the Cascade--a secret that hides a contract with terrorists and a horrifying deception to start a war without rules, without restraints and without remorse. For Jake to stop them he must sacrifice everything that's left of his life, including the crew of Endeavour and the woman he has sacrificed everything for. The story is a fast-paced, hi-tech, action-adventure thriller with geopolitical intrigue in the spirit of Clancy, Cussler, Flynn, and Follett, taking the reader on a chase from space coast to space coast, with stops in the mountains of Pakistan and the border region with Afghanistan, and finally into orbit.