Christopher Reich electrified readers with NUMBERED ACCOUNT and THE
RUNNER, his first two international thrillers. Now the New York
Times bestselling author whose work has been called "gripping"
(Chicago Tribune), "chilling" (The Denver Post),
"wonderful" (The New York Times Book Review), ratchets up
the stakes in an ingeniously plotted story of nerve-jangling
intrigue and hot-wired suspense. Using today's cutthroat global
economy as a backdrop, THE FIRST BILLION explodes into a breakneck
tale of betrayal, revenge, and redemption...

John "Jett" Gavallan is a former fighter pilot, now the high-flying
CEO of Black Jet Securities, an investment firm that earned its
first billion before the techno dream crashed and burned. Poised
for an offering crucial to his company's survival, Gavallan is
banking on the riskiest gamble of his dazzling career. In exactly
six days, he will take Mercury Broadband, Russia's leading media
company, public on the New York Stock Exchange. But rumors of fraud
have suddenly surfaced that could send the deal south. Gavallan
makes a preemptive strike by dispatching his number-two man--fellow
Desert Storm fighter pilot Grafton Byrnes--to Moscow to penetrate
the shadowy Russian multinational. When Byrnes fails to return,
Gavallan fears the worst. But the truth is even more diabolical
than he can imagine.

Plunging into a desperate search for his best friend, the renegade
top gun is suddenly fighting a different kind of war, where there
is no safe harbor and no one he can trust. Not Konstantin Kirov,
the elusive head of Mercury Broadband who may not be what he seems.
Not the bankers and traders Gavallan does business with every day.
Not the exotic beauty who has told him all her deepest
secrets--except one. Suddenly Jett finds himself trapped in a
conspiracy that could shatter the delicate balance between
nations--and plunge the global economy into chaos. Hunted by the
F.B.I. and a band of elite killers, Jett races from Palm Beach to
Zurich to Moscow in a desperate search for answers. But for this
brave ex-commando haunted by visions of war, the truth comes at a
terrible price. With Mercury rising and the hours ticking down, he
is moving closer to a place where murder and revenge are the
currency of choice...and where the first billion is the ultimate
insider secret--and the deadliest obsession of all.

With breakneck plotting, stunning realism, and a sense of danger
that keeps the heart racing, THE FIRST BILLION is a knockout of a
novel that will linger long after the final shocking twist is
revealed.

© Copyright 2003 by Christopher Reich. Reprinted with
permission by Dell, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights
reserved.