Kirk McGarvey has accepted the most critical contract of his career: kill the most dangerous, heavily protected terrorist alive--a man who is about to hand over two hundred Pakistani nukes to the world's most frightening terrorists. Pakistan is torn apart by street riots, and Islamist terror groups are on the verge of toppling its shaky secular government. In the midst of the chaos, the ClA sends Pakistan expert David Haaris to meet with leaders of the military-intelligence apparatus that all but controls the country. Haaris is tasked with preventing the government's impending disintegration. But David Haaris has other ideas. An Islamist double agent working for Pakistani terrorists, he has been undermining the Islamabad regime for decades. Through an act of spectacular violence, Haaris attempts to forge an alliance among some of the region's most horrendous terror groups. His goal is to bring them to power in Pakistan. If he succeeds, the terrorists will possess enough nuclear weapons to destroy all the developed world's capital cities. The terrorists will have finally won. Miles to the south, on the border with Afghanistan, a nuclear weapon is detonated. For the nations of Earth, it is the warning shot. Only one man can stop Haaris's plan--legendary CIA assassin Kirk McGarvey. He must kill Haaris, the terrorist leader they call "the Messiah"--code name: the Fourth Horseman. -- From dust jacket.