The Scorpio Illusion

His name defines the international thriller. Now Robert Ludlum has crafted his most suspenseful, most surprising novel since The Bourne Identity - a multileveled, deftly plotted story of a brilliant and seductive woman who lives single-mindedly for revenge; the Scorpios, the powerful, shadowy forces that support her; and the one man who must find her before it is too late. Amaya Bajaratt is beautiful, elusive - and deadly. Born in a remote Basque village, she watched, a wide-eyed ten-year-old, as bayonet-wielding soldiers brutally beheaded her parents - and at that moment vowed death to all authority. Now the one man she loved has been killed in a terrorist raid and Bajaratt, an accomplished assassin and mistress of disguise and deception, has set in motion a bold act of vengeance: a masterful plan to strike with one violent blow at the heads of Israel, England, France, and the United States. To find her, a desperate intelligence community turns to Tyrell Hawthorne. Hawthorne was a naval intelligence officer - one of the best - until the rain-swept night in Amsterdam when he learned that his wife had been murdered, a victim of the games spies play. Since then, Hawthorne has carved out a new life, sailing charters in the islands. But he's never forgotten the unanswered questions he left behind in Amsterdam.