President Sinclair is forced to abandon the White House as rampant anarchy and wanton violence spreads rapidly across the northern states, while Cobra and his team execute a plan to evacuate New York and head south to the twilight zone.
Elsewhere in the world, a massive winter storm is raging across Southern Argentina, and meteorologist, Carlos Castelli, is unprepared for the incredulous scene at Tehuelche Airport when he goes to Puerto Madryn to assist the search and rescue teams. In the meantime, the Australian Prime Minister, Sydney Bishop, is alarmed by an extraordinary phenomenon moving up from Antarctica at a pertinacious pace, and he appeals to Yuan Tien of China to grant asylum to thirteen million Australian nationals. However, Chairman Tien is more concerned by a buildup of Russian and Mongolian military forces along the Chinese border, so he invites President Bazhenov to Zhongnanhai to offer a deal that anyone lacking probity would find irresistible.
