Doctors Tanya Melnik and Gwen Stillwater are on a mission in S�o Tom�. The two women, both with connections to the intelligence community, are surveying local coral reefs. But before they can complete their study, both researchers are kidnapped.

Their captors want to cover up the environmental damage resulting from a recent oil spill near the coral reefs. But what the captors don't know is their victims have a secret weapon: Jim.

Now married to Gwen, Jim was Tanya's undercover partner when she was an intelligence officer. When the two women disappear, Jim at first fears they have died in an accident. But when he realizes foul play is involved, he calls on his old friends to help him find and retrieve Gwen and Tanya.

Jim soon receives a ransom demand, but the attempted exchange fails-although Gwen and Tanya are rescued, the captors take Jim instead.

During his time in captivity, Jim realizes the scope of the plot is much bigger than he had first thought. His captors are no small-time criminals but international terrorists. And what they are plotting could destabilize the world economy if Jim dies before he can tell anyone what he has discovered.