Amaya Bajaratt is beautiful, elusive, deadly --  and she has set in motion a chilling conspiracy  that a desperate government cannot stop. An  accomplished assassin and mistress of disguise and  deception, she has set in motion the boldest act of  terrorism yet conceived.

Tyrell Hawthorne was a naval  intelligence officer--one of the best--until the  rainswept night in Amsterdam when his wife was  murdered, an innocent victim of the games spies play.  Since then he's been sailing charters in the  islands. Now he's called out of retirement for one last  assignment. For Hawthorne is the only man alive  who can track down the world's most dangerous  terrorist.

Now, with his life and the life of the  President hanging in the balance, Hawthorne must follow  Amanya's serpentine trail, a path of seduction,  betrayal, an instant death.

Racing from a millionaire  recluse's fortress to the social whirl of Palm  Beach and from the Oval Office to treacherous  Caribbean waters, Hawthorne will uncover a sinister  network of well-placed men and women who exist to help  this consummate killer--and the shattering truth  behind the Scorpio Illusion.