After a bitter retirement from the Air Force, former fighter pilot Colin Pearce lives a solitary life flying business jets as a daily contractor. The money is good, the work is plentiful and he manages to keep the demons of his past repressed. But when his best friend from the USAF disappears while working for the CIA, the agency offers Pearce contract work of a different kind, in an aircraft he hasn't flown for years - the deadly F-16 "Viper." Two government agents corner Pearce in the bar of an Atlanta hotel and present a scenario almost too incredible to believe. A mercenary fighter squadron is performing devastating airstrikes for clients willing to pay their price. Pearce's friend flew for them. And now he's gone. The squadron has a vacant position. The CIA wants someone to stop them. It seems like the perfect combination. Especially since the CIA knows the dark secrets of Pearce's past. Pearce takes the job, more for revenge than patriotism. He is whisked away to the unit's remote island training base and immersed in a strenuous program of physical training and reintroduction to the F-16. But as his considerable skills in the agile jet are reawakened, he struggles to stay focused on his mission in the midst of a surreal environment highly-charged with sexual tension. Pearce must also contend with the growing attraction between himself and unit's seductive commander and his deepening realization that she is hiding a sinister secret. Then the group's ultimate mission comes - a nuclear strike which will have dramatic consequences for the entire world. And Pearce is forced to reawaken his demons, take to the skies in the Viper and fight a deadly battle to save millions of souls at the potential cost of his own life.