For counterspy Alex Hawke and his MI6 colleague, the brilliant former inspector Ambrose Congreve, the mission is clear: to get to the root of a terrifying series of unexplained "malfunctions." But how do you fight a phantom—an enemy you cannot see? Cyber-warfare has been declared, and the hunt is leading Hawke on a breakneck race across the globe—on the trail of a villainous megalomaniac who may have created the perfect weapon: a devastating Artificial Intelligence nightmare that could shift the geopolitical balance of power for all time.