Rise of Cobra — Max Allan Collins

WHEN A NEW BREED OF EVIL EMERGES,
A NEW BREED OF SOLDIER MUST FIGHT IT.

While convoying new high-tech weaponry in Central Asia, Captain Duke Hauser and his right-hand man, Ripcord Weems, along with their NATO Special Forces Unit, are ambushed by heavily armed super-soldiers called Vipers. Just as it becomes clear that Duke's squad is seriously outgunned, and after one of the Vipers attempts to make off with the cache of coveted arms, out of nowhere comes a secret band of soldiers to help the good guys: Team G.I. JOE. General Hawk, head of the elite military ops, enlists Duke and Ripcord to join JOE stalwarts Heavy Duty, Breaker, Scarlett, and Snake Eyes in retrieving the weapons and keeping a well-financed foe from controlling cutting-edge nano-mite technology that destroys everything in its path.

Racing around the globe, the G.I. JOE team takes on the baddest of the bad -- Storm Shadow, Zartan, Destro, and the lovely but lethal Baroness. And in confronting genetically manipulated super-soldiers, Duke must also face his own inner demons when a sinister figure appears to raise the stakes and maneuver events toward an even greater catastrophe.