Artic Shadow

When a quantum communications satellite built by NASA crashes into the icy waters of the Bering Sea, a hidden backdoor is unleashed-one capable of shutting down seventy percent of the entire U. S. power grid. Buried within its code is a Cold War-era exploit devised by Soviet scientists, and only one person in the world knows how to disable it. CIA analyst Maya Hart, an expert in artificial intelligence and cryptography, is summoned at a moment's notice to recover the satellite's core module before ultranationalist mercenaries seize it and before a wealthy Russian oligarch can sell the weaponized code to the highest bidder.
Maya's mission hinges on Aleksei Volkov, a former FSB officer who was presumed dead after exposing corruption within the Kremlin. Tracking him to a clandestine auction in Murmansk, she must free Aleksei from captivity and persuade him to guide her across the perilous Arctic tundra. As they navigate a landscape of blinding snow and fractured ice, geomagnetic storms threaten to scramble their navigation systems, and convoys race at breakneck speed across thin sheets of ice that could give way at any moment.
While outside forces close in, they discover a deeper betrayal-a mole within the CIA whose allegiance could tip the balance toward global catastrophe. Over the next seventy-two hours, Maya and Aleksei find themselves drawn into a dangerous dance of shifting loyalties and personal demons. Alternating perspectives reveal Maya's struggle to trust a man whose world she once viewed as an enemy, and Aleksei's desperate bid for redemption after his life was forever altered by Kremlin corruption.
Their partnership is tested at every turn: abandoned Soviet research stations stand as silent witnesses to past experiments, nuclear icebreakers drift beneath auroras that ignite the night sky, and secret laboratories lie buried beneath miles of solid ice. With each discovery, they learn that the greatest threat may come not from the mercenaries at their heels but from the people they once considered allies.
Arctic Shadow is a high-stakes thriller set against the unforgiving backdrop of the Arctic. Maya and Aleksei must race against time-and against their own doubts-to prevent a disaster that could leave millions without power. As the countdown ticks down, they realize that survival depends on their ability to trust one another. When the final hours arrive, the future of two superpowers-and perhaps the world-rests on a knife's edge.