How the hell did they do it? How the hell did they steal an American missile in Afghanistan and smuggle it into Tajikistan, where they used it to kill the brass of the ODKB, a Russian-led military alliance? And where the hell is the second missing rocket that must have been transported along the same route by the same Afghan Taliban group that threatens to conduct another attack? Nikolay Alexeyevich Romanov, a counter-narcotics agent and expert on smuggling from the Russian embassy in Afghanistan, is seconded to Russia's intelligence service to find out. And if he doesn't find out soon, the ODKB will march into Afghanistan - and onto war course with the NATO-led coalition stationed there. Unfortunately, the narrow-minded and heavy-handed Russian, Afghan, and Tajik intelligence agents don't believe Romanov's theory of an unheard-of smuggling route. So he has to risk his career and life to prove them wrong. Otherwise no one will and they will never retrieve the rocket. From the rapids of the Afghan-Tajik border river, to a smugglers' den in the mountains, and blast-wall-protected compounds of Kabul, Romanov is trying to stop the militants - a grieving Taliban commander; his zealous confidant, who knows that there is more to this world than reading the Qur'an; and a young man who has found purpose.