Micah Dalton, who usually works as a cleaner (repairs mistakes of other agents and does not engage in specific missions) for the CIA, is in Vienna, Austria to meet with his friend Issadore Galen, an ex-Mossad officer now in Venice as a consultant with the Carbinieri Dalton was nicknamed "the Krokodil" in 1999 by the Serbian Mafia while in Bosnia and Kosovo fighting Serb rebels knows as "Skorpions."

Dalton notices that he is under surveillance by the Austrian OSE (Secret Service) but with the help of a local old soldier turned bartender, Dalton eludes the OSE thru a secret tunnel, confronts and then beds Veronika Miklas, one of the Austrian agents. Shortly thereafter, Veronika and Micah are attacked by two unknowns.

Dalton is foiled in his attempt to meet with Galen when he finds him tortured in the trunk of a car which necessitates that Mikah and Veronika leave for Venice at once. In Venice, they reunite with Allessio Brancatti, the policeman who helped Micah in previous Stone novels. Brancatti advises that the CIA has implicated Dalton in Galen's death. The three go to Galen's home and discover that it is the Scorpions who are tracking Dalton. Meanwhile, Dalton's old boss Decan Cather enlists Nikki Turner to find Dalton's ex-partner Ray Fyke who is in Panama City. Soon, the old gang arrives to help Dalton save the world. 

The Skorpion Directive refers to an old parable about a scorpion who asks a crocodile to carry him across the river. While the main character is interesting as always, the plot is very predictable and the ultra secret US agency premise has been used all too often before. Stone’s prior novels were much more enticing.

--Jerry Solot