The fighter plane was nicknamed Cobra One. It was cruising eight miles high, above the frozen white of the Arctic Ocean, not far from the North Pole.

A thousand miles away, the long-ranged radars on the coast of Alaska picked up an unknown bomber.

Ground command sent Cobra One to check on it.“Got him,” the radar man said to the pilot, and he pointed to the screen in the middle of his control panel.The pilot, sitting on the left side of the two-man cockpit, glanced at the blip of light on the radar screen. He pushed the throttle forward...

Cobra One raced ahead at Mach 3, three times the speed of sound. Within minutes the bomber was in sight.“No markings on him,” the pilot muttered. “Better radio back to ground command that...”

He never finished the sentence.Cobra One fell apart.

And it’s up to Paul Sarko, scientist-detective, to find out why. Amid spies and counterspies, with his own life in danger, Sarko discovers what he believes is the amazing reason and, in a thrilling climax, takes the remaining Cobra test model up over the Arctic and stakes his life on his hunch.