In 1928, when timid ten-year-old Nate learns that his parents have been lost at sea, he joins his father's cousin on a flight to Arabia where they must oversee the death and rebirth of the phoenix, thus beginning his training as a "beastologist."

"The president of the United States . . . is missing."With these words, New York Times foreign correspondent J. B. Collins - reporting from the scene of a devastating attack by ISIS terrorists on an Arab-Israeli peace summit in Amman - puts the entire world on high alert. Israeli and Palestinian leaders are critically injured. Jordans king is fighting for the very existence of his kingdom. And the U.S. president is missing and presumed captured.As...