When a one-kiloton Russian nuclear demolition bomb the size of a suitcase goes missing from a military depot near the Afghanistan border, the West sits up and takes notice. The CIA discovers that the purchaser of the bomb was Saudi multi-millionaire Osama bin Laden, and his intentions are to use it in the ultimate attack against the United States. Deputy Director of Operations Kirk McGarvey now faces the most difficult and deadly challenge of his career. The White house, against McGarvey's advice, orders attacks on Laden's base of operations in Afghanistan. Instead of killing the terrorist, the missiles kill his nineteen-year-old daughter. The bomb, code-named Joshua's Hammer, is coming to the United States. McGarvey must discover how it will get there, where it will be detonated and when this, the worst terrorist attack in the history of the United States, will take place. McGarvey also discovers that he not only has to protect the United States, he has to protect the President's daughter from a savage act of retaliation by a man gone mad.