John Thomas, Rourke, ex-CIA Cover Operations officer and weapons specialist, has become an expert at the art of survival in a peril-strewn world. His remarkable survival skolls enabled him to emerge unscahted from the nuclear devastation of W.W. III. Rourke finds himself in an unusual alliance with the forces of New Germany against the bloodthirsty Russian foe when he received word of the apopearance of a new and deadly Soviet Super Weapon. Survivors describe being washed with a pale green light before earth and rock suddenly explode in debris-filled, mushroom-shaped clouds. Realizing the Russians have perfected a particle beam weapon that will tip the balance of world power, Rourke embarks on a perilous journey to the frozen Ural Mountains to steal the secret of the killer-beam before New Germany responds to the new threat with their own nuclear arsenal. It would take only one or two thermonuclear detonations above ground to destroy the earth's alrready fragile ecosystem. Rourke's hazardous mission must not fail, for the life of every human being on earth now depends on the skills of The Survivalist.