As the Middle East's oil reserves run dry and widespread drought is devastating millions, the world's superpowers are eyeing Canada. The country's newly elected government is ill-prepared, headed up by a neophyte prime minister who is clearly a puppet. Who is pulling his strings? Curtis Munson's life depends on finding out. Entrusted with a discovery that could end the world's dependence on oil, he is now a target. Someone has already killed to keep the new energy source a secret. Rogue oil moguls? Or the same forces behind his childhood friend's unlikely success in running for Canada's highest office? CSIS agent Ellen Niiqway has been on the trail of a master spy with connections to China. Dragonclaw's hooks are everywhere, and too many trails lead straight to Munson. Now Niiqway's enlisting Munson's help. His mission: Get close to the new prime minister and find out more about his beautiful but dangerous assistant Ying Kao, who has developed an interest in a festering Munson-family tragedy-a cold-war era nuclear warhead lost in the Arctic. Munson works desperately to warn the prime minister and secure the new energy source while staying one step ahead of the assassins, but Niiqway isn't telling him everything. And the world is a pressure-cooker about to explode.