Blue Masquerade (Iron Crucible, #1)

The year is 1992. Over twenty years have passed since Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev was assassinated by a crazed gunman. Since that time, the Soviet Union has been put on a course toward economic success—and war.

In the Balkans, Yugoslavia's collapse into ethnic violence draws NATO and the Warsaw Pact to the brink of Armageddon. Armies deploy and fleets maneuver. Political intrigue engulfs Moscow and Washington, and paranoia radiates from the Iron Curtain. In the zero-sum game of Cold War, neither side can afford to blink or back down.

A conflict nearly fifty years in the making spills from boardrooms and back alleys and explodes into open battle on land, air and sea. The showdown of the century is here: East versus West with the future of mankind at stake.