Juan de Santiago is not only a billionaire coca grower. He is also a deranged revolutionary, the commander of the most powerful private army in South America. Backed by power-hungry rogue nations who supply him with the latest weaponry, de Santiago devices a plan that will dishearten the American antidrug effort and make him El Jefe once and for all.

A successful soldier in Florida's antidrug war, Tom Kincaid is an expert on Colombia, with connections that lead directly to Juan de Santiago himself. But when U.S. politicians demand a publicity-driven drug bust, they blow the cover of Kincaid's carefully crafted network, leaving most of his informants dead, and get the DEA agent exiled to the relative backwater of Seattle.

Commander Jonathan Ward and his crew on the old attack sub Spadefish are on one last mission. They are to launch a strike that will put de Santiago and his empire out of business for good. They are getting help from Bill Beaman and his SEAL team, who are searching for the secret laboratories of de Santiago. Following deep jungle trails and hiking the lofty mountains of the ancient Inca Empire, they are intent on driving a stake through the heart of de Santiago's drug empire.

But there is a leak in the Colombian government, and Beaman and his SEALs are being stalked. From the old highways of the Incas to the plush haciendas of the drug lords, guerrilla armies are lurking, striking out at those who threaten their lucrative trade. And at the same time, a futuristic minisub leaves Colombia. Destination: Seattle. And it is loaded with the most lethal, addictive substance known to man.