The world's worst nightmare has become a reality. A militant Middle East terrorist group called the Yassinists has conceived a plot against the Great Satan-the United States-in retribution for decades of suffering that the Palestinians have suffered at the hands of Israel. Operation Desert Decree, as the plan is called, consists of not just an isolated bombing or assassination but an all-out attack involving a number of diversionary targets: a nuclear power plant, the downing of a commercial airliner with Stinger missiles, the seizure of the USS Georgia, a nuclear submarine, and a raid on the hot zone at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta to steal viral material for extortion. But the overwhelming and terrifying goal is the widespread release of the Lubeck-Dorn virus, a newly discovered, extremely virulent infectious disease that has no antidote.
Arrayed against them is SOC, Inc., a team of medically retired U.S. Navy SEALs hired by Senator Carson, the chairman of the Subcommittee for International Terrorism, to conduct security audits at nuclear and biological facilities throughout the southeastern United States. The senator has communications intelligence that a radical Middle Eastern terrorist organization is planning an attack somewhere in Georgia. The SEALs, led by Commander Derek Evans, tangle with the Yassinists and check their every move, but the race to stave off the release of the viral terror and avert global destruction is a nail-biting tour de force by Simmons, who keeps his readers on the edge of their seats.
