Majestic-12, a group of the world's richest men, make up a bounty list of fifteen targets that have to be eliminated before 12 noon of October 26.
Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, Schofield's girlfriend Elizabeth Gant leads a group of Marines, along with Mother, to a cave system where Osama bin Laden's number two man is.
On the French aircraft carrier, it is revealed that Schofield, along with the fifteen other targets, are the only people who have quick enough reactions to disable the missiles being launched from disguised ships in the Kormoran Project.
The plan involves copies of different countries' missiles being launched at their bitterest enemies, resulting in a new Cold War which will bring in huge profits for the members of Majestic-12.
in the meantime, the President of the United States gives all of the U.S. Armed Forces' resources to Schofield to neutralize the threat posed by the ships.
Only in his early thirties, Captain Schofield is renowned for his level-headed demeanor and reflexes that afford him the ability to come out of devastating conflict alive.
His callsign comes from two vertical scars that run from his eyebrows to his cheeks, over his eyes, wounds he sustained while he was a Harrier pilot for the Marine Corps in Serbia.
Although his rank is well below many others in the story, he frequently takes command of the entire United States military; the President personally agreeing to this due to Schofield having saved his life the preceding year.
Often resorting to very dangerous strategies to win a battle, it has become the norm for any attempt on his life to end with him escaping while the surrounding environment is more or less demolished.
He commands a recon unit of Marines called to aid the Russian government - a trap designed to lead to his death.
Unlike Schofield and Mother, Gant has neither lightning-fast reflexes nor sheer brute strength and as a result has been seriously injured several times before.
Gant is viciously beheaded via a guillotine in Killian's Forteresse de Valois by Noonan, an ISS operative working with M-12.
Thirty-four years old, 6'4" in height with a fully shaved head and weighing in at over 200 lbs, Mother's callsign is not meant to convey maternal qualities - rather it is short for Motherfucker.
Fiercely loyal to Schofield and possessed of a similar luck which has allowed her to survive several near-death experiences- to the extent that it is commented towards the end of the novel that the Grim Reaper, if he exists, is only afraid of Mother-, Mother opts for a violent solution more readily than her unit leader.
It was revealed by Matthew Reilly that the Black Knight was meant to be a dark double to Scarecrow; he also has an eye problem and has had his disagreements with the US government.
Less inclined to combat than Knight and especially Mother, he is very capable of deduction and serves as an accurate information gatherer for Schofield after managing to secure files on M-12 within the Mossad headquarters.
After completing the first draft of his most recent book The Five Greatest Warriors, Matthew Reilly was engaged by a Hollywood producer to adapt Scarecrow into a screenplay.