Seas of Crisis — Joe Buff

The next world war draws toward its climax. Both the Allies and the Berlin-Boer Axis are bitterly deadlocked. But a familiar enemy from the past may hold the key to victory -- or could be the instrument of global Armageddon.

In a war that needs every capable body, every scrap of materiel, America's greatest military hero worries that his days on the front lines are over. Captain Jeffrey Fuller's last mission forced him to sacrifice the lives of good men in order to secure a victory, a tactical decision that he fears may have ended his career.

But an opportunity for redemption comes in the form of a new mission that will pit Fuller against his former adversaries from the Cold War. Washington has concluded that Russia is the key to victory. The former superpower, officially a neutral country, is clandestinely supplying the Axis powers with advanced weapons technology. Russia must be punished, but it needs to be orchestrated in such a way that will, at the same time, avoid creating a new enemy. To accomplish such a bold maneuver, Jeffrey Fuller must sneak a team of commandos into Russia to launch a nuclear missile -- against his own country.

If successful, the Allies will be able to destroy the missile and use the event to pressure the Russians into an alliance. It's an all-or-nothing gambit, with no room for error. If the Russians discover the commandos, they will side with Berlin against the United States, a political disaster that will ensure victory for the Axis. If something goes wrong with the missile, Fuller could kill millions of people, and perhaps even initiate a full-blown nuclear holocaust.

Such worst-case scenarios assume that Fuller can first navigate his ship, the fast attack nuclear submarine USS Challenger, through the mine-strewn and submarine-patrolled waters between Alaska and Siberia, a nearly impossible feat unto itself.

It is a mission that will, one way or another, finally put an end to the war.