Countdown

Ten years after the Hour of Tragedy, Earth exists under an uneasy peace. The surviving powers have gathered their strength into rival alliances, each protected by hidden missile networks designed to detect an attack and answer with annihilation. Nations, continents, and even the boundaries between enemies have been reduced to pieces in a terrifying system where one mistake—or one deliberate act—could destroy billions.

Deep inside three fortified command centers, three men wait in isolation: one from America, one from Russia, and one from Africa. Each has been chosen to make the final decision if radiation signals that war has begun, with a red button to launch the bombs and a white button supposedly able to stop them. But the safeguards are an illusion, and the burden placed on a single human mind is almost impossible to bear. As one trembling finger moves toward the button, the fate of civilization hangs on whether fear, duty, or humanity will prevail.