The Typhoon is the largest submersible ever built. As big as a World War II aircraft carrier, it is the crowning achievement of the Soviet Union. The leviathans sank into decay with its demise and in exchange for hard currency, the new Russian Federation promised to scrap them. But one has escaped the cutter's torch. Now something big and wicked is coming out of the Barents Sea. Only USS Portland, her aggressive captain, his conflicted Exec, and the first woman to serve aboard an American sub stand in its way. Locked in a struggle that pits American technology against a wily Russian captain, neither side can afford to lose, yet only one ship, one crew, can win.