He tries to commit suicide in order to avoid his inevitable arrest when he is prevented by General Su Ke Qiang, the leader of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

The Chinese Navy then aggressively harasses and sinks ships passing through the South China Sea, including an Indian aircraft carrier (sent there by India to protect its own interests).

U.S. President Jack Ryan tries to resolve the conflict by covertly sending in a contingent of Marine fighter pilots in order to reinforce the Taiwanese Air Force.

Meanwhile, The Campus deals with a breach in their organization when a hit job on a cell of former Libyan intelligence officers in Istanbul attracts the attention of a mysterious hacker codenamed Center, who is later revealed to be Dr. Tong.

They later find out about one of his associates, Zha Shu Hai (codenamed FastByte22), who is a fugitive from the United States and is pursued by CIA non-official cover operative Adam Yao in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, realizing that Su has been manipulating him for his own gain, Wei intentionally leaks his whereabouts during a phone call with President Ryan, who interprets it as an implicit plea to assassinate the military leader and passes this information to The Campus.

Clark then travels to China and joins Chavez, Caruso, and Sam Driscoll, who were sent earlier by director of national intelligence Mary Pat Foley to liaise with an underground faction of Chinese dissidents.

Kirkus Reviews praised the book as "a satisfying thriller" where "Clancy’s writing has shed some of its erstwhile woodenness" and "doesn't read a technical manual, which is all to the good".

[5] Publishers Weekly hailed the "highly readable if workmanlike techno-thriller", concluding: "Clancy fans will welcome all the high-tech data as well as heroes who can single-handedly take out whole teams of bad guys.