Polar Shift is the name for a phenomenon that may have occurred many times in the past At its weakest, it disorients birds and animals and damages electrical equipment At its worst, it causes massive eruptions, earthquakes and climatic changes At its very worst, it would mean the obliteration of all living matter Sixty years ago, an eccentric Hungarian genius discovered how to artificially trigger such a shift, but then his work disappeared, or so it was thought Now, the charismatic leader of an anti-globalization group plans to use it to give the world's industrialized nations a small jolt, before reversing the shift back again The only problem is, it can't be reversed Once it starts, there is nothing anyone can do Austin, Zavala and the rest of the NUMA Special Assignments Team have certainly faced dire situations before, but never have they encountered anything like this This time even they may be too late