Amaya Bajaratt is the most deadly terrorist in the annals of political struggle: beautiful and elusive, the horrors of her past have made her an accomplished assassin; her motive is revenge, her vowed intent is murder. Behind her are the Scorpios – a clandestine network of the wealthy and the well-placed – rich enough, clever enough, obsessed enough to overthrow governments.

Tyrell Hawthorne had been in his day a brilliant naval intelligence officer, but with the death of his wife – a victim of lethal spy games – he lost his taste for the fray. Now he is dragged reluctantly into the deadliest game of all as a mysterious woman embarks on a voyage of violence and mayhem, where love, too, may be a weapon.

Robert Ludlum's crystalline mind for the convoluted, ruthless strategies of political intrigue, and his masterful hand with the high-energy, fast-paced action of international terrorism, has bred a powerful novel that strikes with the deadly accuracy of a scorpion's tail.