Michael Pacino

A confrontation of nuclear submarines just 200 miles off the American coast is the scenario of this riveting novel by a former U.S. Navy submarine officer. At the center of the deadly conflict are two men on a mission: one wants to find his father's killer, while the other wants to destroy Glasnost and provoke a war. The ensuing underwater chases and battles build to a stunning showdown.

The nightmare fear of the US had come true. One of our finest submarines, the U.S.S. Tampa, on a top-secret spying mission, had fallen into Chinese Communist hands. The Communists, fighting for survival in a savage civil war, now held not only the sub, the crew, and the gutsy Commander Sean Murphy hostage, but US power and prestige as well. America had one last desperate card to play.

The Hegira is the finest super-sub that Arab oil money can buy. But the U.S. Navy is only now learning just how good this undersea sword of Islam is. Already one American sub has been destroyed, and another crippled, as the Hegira breaks out of the Mediterranean and heads toward America to deliver its lethal payload.

A volatile new state calling itself Greater Manchuria emerges out of the political and military strife of Asia. Thanks to the connections of its brash leader, it boasts an atomic arsenal. Japan, threatened by its proximity to nuclear disaster, shocks the world by launching a sophisticated preemptive strike against its new neighbor. Worldwide outrage at this aggression provokes the UN to blockade the trade-dependent nation.

In the East China Sea, six Japanese submarines are attacked and believed destroyed. To the world, it seems like an accident. But to one man, former submarine commander Dick Donchez, it is the first act of war. He alone knows the truth, that the old guard of Red China has stolen the subs to wage a massive attack against the new Free China. Vice Admiral Michael Pacino can't prove Donchez's theory. The US government will not officially retaliate. But when a full-scale battle erupts, Pacino is quickly given command of the Navy's latest undersea weapon.