Eric Holbrook, a former astronaut, is on a weekend retreat with his wife Carmen at Galveston Island, Texas. One night while jogging on the beach, he inadvertently becomes involved in an al-Qaeda attempt to kill a woman on the Galveston fishing pier. He saves the woman's life and gets a clear look at her assailant. His ability to identify the terrorist makes him a danger to the planned attacks on the City of Houston, the Houston port, oil refineries and NASA. The leader of the sleeper al-Qaeda cell in Clear Lake, just south of Houston, decides that Holbrook and the woman he saved must be killed if the planned attacks are to be successfully implemented. He is successful in having Holbrook shot. While lying in a coma, after dying on the operating table for five minutes, Holbrook struggles to survive. His mind is clear but his body is completely paralyzed. He is aware of all the events going on around him but is unable to communicate. The doctors assume he is brain dead. A brilliant Muslim extremist called the Engineer, who also has a nuclear weapon in his possession, plans terrorist al-Qaeda attacks. The nuclear bomb had been smuggled across the porous Mexican border. Meanwhile a split personality psychotic who branded himself "The Eradicator" craves to be legendary and recognized as the one man who killed more humans than anyone in history. When these three men's paths cross, an explosive story emerges including politics, murder, romance and devastation.