"Venezuela, 1992. Unknown colonel Hugo Ch©Łvez stages an ill-fated coup against a corrupt government, igniting the passions of Venezuela's poor and catapulting the oil-rich country to international attention. For two rival spies hurriedly dispatched to Caracas--one from Washington, DC, and the other from Fidel Castro's Cuba--this is a career-defining mission. Smooth-talking Iv©Łn Rinc©đn of Cuba's Intelligence Directorate needs a rebel ally to secure the future of his own country. His job: support Ch©Łvez and the revolution by rallying the militants and neutralizing any opposing agents. Meanwhile, the CIA's Cristina Garza will do everything in her power to cut Ch©Łvez's influence short. Her priority: stabilize the greatest oil reserves on the planet by ferreting out and eliminating Cuba's principal operative. As Ch©Łvez surges to power, Iv©Łn's and Cristina's paths cross. Soon they're caught in the fallout of a toxic political time bomb: an intrepid female reporter and unwitting informant, a drug lord and key architect in Ch©Łvez's rise, and Iv©Łn and Cristina themselves. With everything at stake, the adversaries find themselves at the center of a game of espionage, seduction, murder, and shifting alliances playing out against the precarious backdrop of a nation in free fall. A thrilling fictional story based on unimaginable real-life events."--Provided by publisher.