The CIA is alarmed by a recent spike in intelligence pointing to a major terrorist attack planned against the continental United States. One day looms large on the calendar—Memorial Day. The president, the leaders of the House and the Senate, veterans organizations, Hollywood celebrities and foreign heads of state are set to attend the dedication of the magnificent new memorial honoring the men and women who fought in WWII. With only seven days to go before the ceremony the president orders Mitch Rapp, his top counterterrorism operative, to pull out all the stops. Rapp immediately leaves for Afghanistan where he leads the ultra secret counterterrorism unit Task Force 11 on a daring commando raid across the border into the Tribal Areas of Northern Pakistan. Their target: an al-Qaeda stronghold in one of the most remote and desolate areas of Southwest Asia. Under the cover of darkness the elite team descends on the remote village and is met by a hail of bullets and RPG's. With close air support from circling gun ships the team secures the camp, but not before the man they are after manages to take his own life. Rapp's anger at himself for failing to capture the terrorist alive is short lived. A subterranean room under one of the houses is discovered containing a treasure trove of maps, computers and files. Everything in the room is removed and brought back to the base in Afghanistan where Rapp and his team board a plane for the U.S. With no time to waste they begin the daunting task of unraveling the riddle. Back in Washington, the president meets with his top advisors. Evacuation plans for the city are dusted off, and it's decided that until further notice the vice president will remain at the new, highly secure, underground facility in rural Virginia where the Shadow Government has been set up. In the back of the cavernous hold of the air force C-17 cargo plane, Rapp and his team begin to uncover some startling facts: dossiers of four missing Pakistani nuclear scientists that the CIA has been trying to locate for nine months, a map of New York City with projected blast radiuses and casualty estimates, and bills of landing for multiple freighters headed for three U.S. ports. All signs point to an attack of almost unimaginable proportions. The information is quickly relayed back to CIA headquarters where it is verified that one of the freighters in question is currently steaming into the port of Charleston. A Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) is scrambled to the scene and without raising undue suspicion, they verify that the core of a nuclear warhead is indeed stowed away in the belly of the ship. The president orders the Navy to board the other two vessels which are still at sea and before the sun rises on the Eastern Seaboard the entire cataclysmic disaster has been averted. Terrorists have been arrested in Charleston trying to pick up the crate and are currently being questioned by Department of Justice officials. The entire operation is a major success for all agencies involved. Despite all the back slapping and congratulations, Mitch Rapp can't shake the feeling that the entire thing seemed just a bit too easy. Following his instincts and the clues that he unearthed in Pakistan, Rapp is driven onward in a determined search for not just the truth, but the whole truth. Battling people in his own government, and terrorists alike, his search leads him to the Black Sea and the hulk of a sunken Russian submarine where he confirms his greatest fears. The silent hunter of the Cold War went to its watery grave with two nuclear tipped torpedoes and both are missing. A second bomb is in play, and with Memorial Day closing fast Rapp must overcome unbelievable odds to prevent the decapitation of his government and the destruction of his nation's capital. Return to top