From the ashes of the old Russian regime rises a new threat to democracy. His name is Yevgenni Anatolevich Tarankov, nicknamed the Tarantula, and he's poised to take the world's second most powerful country back into the dark ages. The CIA, however, is not about to let this happen without a fight. Enter Kirk McGarvey, an ex-CIA operative who is given the task of stopping the Tarantula any way he can. But when Tarankov is alerted to McGarvey's presence by the KGB, McGarvey becomes the hunted man.