Lore

The Blue Harvest is a state-of-the-art NATO armored train, built to move people and supplies quickly and safely across a still-fractured post-Cold-War Europe. As a gesture of peace between France and Russia, it's carrying French Ambassador Pierre Simon and his family home from St. Petersburg to Paris, along with hundreds of pieces of art Russia is returning after decades of holding them.

Partway through the journey, terrorists calling themselves the Knights of the Apocalypse — led by ex-KGB agent Boris Zugoski — storm the train from the air, wipe out its NATO escort, and take the Ambassador's family hostage. The only survivor of the initial attack is Lieutenant Jack Morton, a NATO pilot who escapes his downed helicopter by jumping onto the train's roof.

Boris's demands are simple on the surface: ten billion dollars and safe passage to France. To prove he means business, he reveals he's smuggled a hijacked nuclear warhead aboard — and Jack quickly learns the situation is worse than even the UN realizes, with a second conspiracy unfolding inside the Ambassador's own staff. Cut off from any real backup and guided only by radio contact with HQ and the train's last surviving guard, Christina Wayborn, Jack has to fight his way the length of the train, rescue who he can, and stop the warhead before the Blue Harvest ever reaches Paris.

Jack Morton — A NATO pilot and second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, and the sole survivor of the helicopter Boris's men shoot down at the start of the hijacking. Equally comfortable with a gun or his fists, Jack becomes the Ambassador's only real hope of rescue.

Christina Wayborn — The last surviving member of the Ambassador's security detail and a former Olympic shooter. She stays in radio contact with Jack throughout the hijacking, feeding him information and backup wherever she can.

Billy McGuire — A French Army officer responsible for the Blue Harvest's radar systems. Badly wounded early in the hijacking, saving his life becomes one of Jack's first real tests.

Pierre Simon — The French Ambassador to Russia, riding the Blue Harvest home with his family after a diplomatic visit. He's more worried about his family's safety — and his secretary's increasingly strange behavior — than about himself.

Catherine and Jane Simon — The Ambassador's wife and young daughter, held with him when the train is first taken and evacuated by helicopter once Jack clears their car of guards.

Philip Mason — The Ambassador's secretary. Ostensibly loyal and well-trained in combat from an earlier military career, his behavior throughout the crisis grows harder to explain — and he turns out to be working an agenda entirely his own.

Boris Zugoski — A former KGB agent and the leader of the Knights of the Apocalypse. His hijacking is framed as a ransom job, but his real plan is to turn the Blue Harvest itself into a weapon aimed at France.