As the G-20 leaders prepare to meet in Puerto Rico, a terrorist Al Qaeda splinter group decides to plant a nuclear device in one of the ancient tunnels under Old San Juan and in one bold stroke decapitate the top world governments.


Puerto Rico is poised to petition Congress to become its 51st state, which would give the island more Congressional representatives than half of the fifty states in the Union, and permanently alter the balance of American politics. To those favoring the independence of Puerto Rico, this is nothing short of an unmitigated disaster.


Professing to sympathize with the pro-independence movement, an Al Qaeda organization gathers the most violent factions of the island's independence movement, including the dreaded Macheteros-a real life, extremely dangerous group that wants to convert the island into a Cuba-like socialist republic-and even secures the covert aid of a Venezuelan special army unit that provides the heavier, sophisticated weapons that the operation.


Professing to sympathize with the pro-independence movement, an Al Qaeda organization gathers the most violent factions of the island's independence movement, including the dreaded Macheteros-a real life, extremely dangerous group that wants to convert the island into a Cuba-like socialist republic-and even secures the covert aid of a Venezuelan special army unit that provides the heavier, sophisticated weapons that the operation Together, they blow up the four bridges that span the Condado Lagoon and connect San Juan-Puerto Rico's capital and home to about fifty thousand people-to the rest of the island. They capture the "Grand Laguna Hotel", San Juan's principal tourist resort; La Fortaleza, the Governor's mansion; and the Mardi Gras, a cruise ship docked in Old San Juan. They hope that the insurrection will stop dead in its track the statehood movement, when Congress is faced with the prospect-as one terrorist phrases it-of "swallowing up a source of permanent indigestion". While the insurrection takes place and the attention of the world is riveted on the hostages, the Al Qaeda group-headed by the charismatic Angel San Miguel-secretly plants the nuclear device, to be detonated several months later, during the G-20 conference.


Lucas Alfaro, an ex-Army Ranger who works in his family's small business, is unwillingly drawn into the conflict after his godson, an eight-year old boy spending the night in the Governor's mansion with his best friend, the Governor's son, is captured by the terrorists. Failing to convince the Macheteros that his godson is of no value to them, Lucas finds himself desperately fighting for his life and that of the other hostages in La Fortaleza and the long-abandoned tunnels of Old San Juan. They are relentlessly pursued by El Alacran, the leader of the Macheteros, who is set on killing the Governor and his family.


Several months later, as the G-20 leaders meet in Old San Juan, San Miguel and two of his most dangerous associates return to the ancient city, to make certain that the nuclear device they planted is operating properly, and that it will go off as scheduled. However, their paths accidentally cross with that of Lucas Alfaro, leading to the book's finale.