Set in the Tom Clancy universe, President Ryan deals with the imprisonment of his friend and former CIA colleague, Jesuit priest Pat West, in Indonesia.

Along with his assassin Kang, Chao blackmails him into giving them a copy of Calliope, intending to exploit its next-generation AI capabilities to hack into American military computer systems.

However, Father West, a former CIA officer, manages to send a private text message about his encounter with Noonan to his friend, U.S. President Jack Ryan.

After pleading for the release of Father West to the Indonesian president to no avail, he decides to make a state visit to Indonesia.

President Ryan receives intelligence on Chinese general Song Biming’s granddaughter, who is suffering from retinoblastoma and is about to be brought to the United States for a surgical operation.

With Calliope in tow, Chavez and colleague Adara Sherman hijack an aircraft smuggling heroin, crashing into a nearby island.

Meanwhile, senator Michelle Chadwick finds herself blackmailed by her lover, PLA operative David Huang, into spying on her political rival President Ryan.

After embedding itself into several military communications systems, Calliope makes contact with an American F-35 stealth fighter in the middle of a training exercise in the Pacific Ocean.

USS Makin Island, having been informed of Calliope's capabilities by Akana, quickly detects the application and deletes it from its computer system.