Alex Rider does battle with a charity broker con artist who has invested millions of dollars in a form of genetically modified corn that can release an airborne strain of virus capable of knocking out an entire country in one day.

"It is M's funeral. One man is missing from the graveside: the traitor who pulled the trigger and who is now in custody, accused of M's murder--James Bond. Behind the Iron Curtain, a group of former SMERSH agents want to use the British spy in an operation that will change the balance of world power. Bond is smuggled into the lion's den--but whose orders is he following, and will he obey them when the moment of truth arrives? In a mission where treachery...