When three American fishermen disappear along the North Carolina coast, their sportfishing yacht is found blown to pieces. While family and friends try to determine what happened, the CIA keeps the details a secret, yet they intensely search for answers themselves. Why are Russian and Cuban military officials meeting near Bermuda? How does Chechnya's fight for independence threaten the security of the United States? And what does an intense treasure hunt for Spanish gold in Cuban waters have to do with a clandestine operation to rescue American citizens? The resulting crisis carries the potential for world-wide destruction that even the CIA's finest agents may be too late to defuse.