When the leader of North Korea is catastrophically injured, his incapacitation inadvertently triggers a "dead-man''s switch, " activating an army of sleeper agents in South Korea and precipitating a struggle for succession. Jack Ryan, Jr. is in Seoul to interview a potential addition to the Campus. But his benign trip takes a deadly turn when a wave of violence perpetrated by North Korean operatives grips South Korea''s capital. A mysterious voice from North Korea offers Jack a way to stop the peninsula''s rush to war, but her price may be more than he can afford to pay.