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 determined 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. It is a long-forgotten clause 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. And, 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.