A secret service agent is dead by apparent suicide, a presidential candidate narrowly escapes assassination, and Desk Three is searching for a chilling connection deep inside the Republic of Vietnam. Charlie Dean is in Vietnam to find the source of some threatening email when he comes face to face with a man he thought he had killed; while Deep Black agent, Lia DeFrancesca uncovers the man in Dean's path.

Two massive ships are on a dual path to destruction. One is a freighter carrying nuclear materials to Japan; the other, a cruise ship heading for the Mediterranean. Japanese eco-terrorists and Middle East extremists have joined forces to infiltrate the ships, incapacitate the crew, and change course toward the United States. In Washington, Charlie Dean and a team of commandos are dispatched to blow the hijackers' plot out of the water.