The Pale Horse

A flash tore the sky over Earth open—like several ballistic missile warheads had detonated. The planet shuddered from an impact registered by every seismological station in the world. Missile units were put on alert, but… no air-raid alert was announced. No country in the world struck a nuclear blow at the enemy. And yet, in the deep Russian hinterland something extraordinary happened.

One of the specialists who should have figured out what occurred was Major of the GRU Nikolay Zimin. The trouble in his family forced him to forget about service—but only for a time… Because the disaster hanging over humanity turned out to be far worse…