1954. Vixen 03 is down. The plane, bound for the Pacific, vanishes. Its cargo: thirty-six Doomsday bombs -- canisters armed with quick-death germs of unbelievable potency. Vixen has, in fact, crashed into an ice-covered lake in Colorado.

1988. Dirk Pitt, who heroically raised the Titanic, discovers the wreckage of Vixen 03. But two of the deadly canisters are missing. They've fallen into the hands of a terrorist group. Their mission: to sail a battleship up the Potomac and blast Washington, D.C.... and only Dirk Pitt can stop them.