Neal Archer is a former Marine intelligence operator in the Persian Gulf. He's now working for D.I.R.E., a top-secret intelligence think-tank run by his old operational control officer, retired Marine Colonel Kingston Roberts. But this think-tank does more than analyze data. They secretly conduct covert operations for friendly countries that cannot be associated with such activities, providing those countries, with plausible deniability. Archer and Colonel Roberts are searching the globe for Tomas "T.R." Rocha, a former U.S. operator, now an international criminal wanted for supplying weapons and explosives to terrorist cells worldwide, including Al Qaida and the Taliban. Each time Archer and Rocha cross paths, they leave death and destruction in their wake. Rocha is finally tracked to the Port of Sacramento in California, where his cargo ship, The Star of Gibraltar, is filled with another shipment of advanced armaments and weapons-grade plutonium for the terrorists. As Archer and his team close in on Rocha, they stumble across an opportunity to catch not only Rocha, but the high-ranking extremists buying his wares. After a running gun battle in and around the port, Archer becomes trapped by the terrorists, out of ammunition and cut off from the rest of the team. Seeing his old friend in trouble, Rocha gathers all of the ranking extremists in the hold of the ship and detonates the cache of explosives hidden throughout the vessel, killing himself and the leaders of Al Qaida. The resulting explosion destroys most of the Port of Sacramento. Archer and Colonel Roberts have a change of heart about their old nemesis; from an internationally wanted supporter of world terror to a rediscovered patriot who, in the end, gave his own life to save his friends and his country.