As if joining Congress isn't a plunge into shark-infested waters at the best of times, Ben Kincaid has become a Senator amidst truly explosive events. The United States is in the crosshairs, and Ben Kincaid is standing right in the middle. The Director of Homeland Security--in charge of protecting the nation--is abducted, tortured for info, and murdered. A senior senator with whom Kincaid shared the hallways on a daily basis is killed after being infected with ricin. Finally, Kincaid himself is in attendance with the President himself at the Oklahoma City Memorial when a sniper starts firing on the very site of unimaginable tragedy. In the ensuing bedlam, a bomb explodes. Ben's friend is seriously injured, and twelve others are fatally wounded--including the First Lady herself. A week later, the President proposes a radical Constitutional amendment to combat terrorists at home, and even a grieving public is unnerved at the implications. As a sitting senator, Ben Kincaid is placed squarely in the middle, but after witnessing so many deaths firsthand, Kincaid himself is becoming hardened. Meanwhile, his partner Christina has her own debate--whether the attack was really the work of terrorists, or contrived to force the very measures being grappled over in the Senate. While Kincaid engages the conspiracy on Capitol Hill, his team scours the underground for evidence of who was behind the attack, and if more attacks--staged or not--are to come.