This taut thriller provides the behind-the-scenes reality of the national security system at work --the CIA, the Oval Office, the Pentagon, and the National Security Council -- and is must-reading for fans of Tom Clancy and W.E.B. Griffin. <br><p>In 1945, the U.S. submarine <i>Tigerfish</i> mistakenly torpedoed and sunk a Japanese merchant ship. Reportedly carrying supplies to allied POWs, the ship had been given safe passage, but was actually a cunning ruse devised by a powerful secret society to transport tons of gold out of Japan under the very eyes of the enemy. Some thirty years later, the captain of the <i>Tigerfish</i> is murdered in Washington. As the CIA launches its investigation into his death, a race to raise the ship and recover its treasure begins, which mounts to an international incident involving the U.S., China, the Soviet Union and Japan.