SYNOPSIS:

Scene opens on the covert theft of a powerful computer program called INTRAC. We see JACK FRANKLIN of the NSA and YURI ZHUKOV of the USSR's GRU, working together, spying on a very private meeting in a Swiss Alps chateau. They see the world's most powerful leaders gathering in secret, including Jack's boss at the NSA, MASON FORSYTHE. Jack tells Yuri he'd stole INTRAC from the CIA at Forsythe's behest. Discovered, Jack and Yuri flee in a dramatic ski chase down near vertical slopes. Inside the Chateau, the meeting continues. British banker SIR ALISTAIR MILLBROOK presides over a table of world leaders, but clearly shares power with Forsythe and BORIS KORSAKOV. They're discussing a plan that will end the Cold War, and bring the USSR "into the family of nations." But one Soviet general rises to call Korsakov a traitor and the rest arch criminals. His loyalty in question his fate sealed, Korsakov has him shot. We meet LEE RYDELL lecturing on foreign affairs at a university. In the Q&A after his speech, FIONA FORBES-HAMILTON impresses Lee with intelligent questions -- too intelligent. But when a heckler accuses Lee of still being NSA and alludes to dark events surrounding his wife's death, Lee storms from the lectern. After calming down, he attends a book signing event and Lee gives Fiona his phone number. Betrayed by Mason Forsythe, Jack Franklin has finished uploading all the secret INTRAC data to some secure location when armed men assault his safe house. He's brutally tortured by Cockney rogue operative SYD MCVICKER but won't talk. Fiona calls Lee to warn him that his friend's in danger -- she's working with Jack. Lee rushes to Jack's safe house to find his charred body. Before dying, Jack tells Lee that McVicker tortured him over INTRAC and "the Claybark Deal." As he dies, he says "Find Yuri" and the cryptic word: "Sanctuary!" Not realizing Forsythe's involvement, Lee turns to his old boss at the NSA for help, but Forsythe stonewalls him. Lee flies to Vienna to get help from his old mentor and uber-operative CONTESSA KATRINA VON WALLENBURG. They discuss Claybark, one of the world's largest banks, and Katrina tells him how to find Yuri. She puts him on a train, but is gunned down. Syd McVicker, his appearance unknown to Lee, sits down next to Lee on the train. Soldiers chase and kidnap Lee. But instead of McVicker's men, they're Yuri's. Now Lee and Yuri join forces to unravel a mystery involving the most powerful men in the world and a multi-trillion dollar conspiracy that will bring down the U.S.S.R., but at a terrible cost. To discover the truth they must first find the ultra-secret "Sanctuary of the Sharks," the redoubt where the most private people house their deepest secrets. Betrayed by Fiona, and up against unimaginably powerful adversaries, they finally confront Millbrook, Forsythe and Korsakov and at last learn the truth about the greatest crime in history: The upcoming "fall" of the Soviet Union is - a "leveraged buyout" - giving its assets including its industrial base and immense oil and gas reserves to a secret cabal who are also stealing its 11,000 metric tons of gold from it's National Treasury.