Jim Dillon

Off the coast of Indonesia, an American cargo ship has been seized by terrorists, its captain kidnapped and its crew mercilessly slaughtered. In Washington, a peace-loving President's refusal to punish the transgressors has enraged the sitting Congress, led by a wrathful Speaker of the House. An ambitious young congressional assistant, Jim Dillon has discovered a time bomb hidden away in America's Constitution-a provision that could be used to wrest power from the Chief Executive, a long-forgotten law that could incite a devastating constitutional crisis ... and plunge the country into chaos. Now, as a battle group steams toward a fateful confrontation in the Java Sea-commissioned by Congress and opposed by the President-Dillon finds himself in the center of a firestorm that rages from the highest court in the land to the killing fields half a world away. Suddenly there is much more at stake than the life of a single surviving hostage and a superpower's military credibility-as a great nation prepares for war ... against itself.

An admiral is on trial for having defied the President while carrying out the orders of a rebellious Congress; a President is on trial for having failed to act when a crisis threatened his country. Congressional aide Jim Dillon discovered a little- known provision in the U. S. Constitution, and it plunged the federal government into chaos. Now he struggles to gain control over the extraordinary events his actions precipitated, volunteering for the defence team at the court martial of Admiral Ray Billings, who disregarded a presidential order by leading an assault on foreign terrorists. Meanwhile, in the South Pacific, a fanatic plans to exploit the weaknesses of an American government in upheaval by brutally shedding American blood and taking innocent citizens hostage. But nothing will prevent a great nation from doing what is right, no matter what the price, not when the honour and the future of America is at stake.