Captain Andrew Warner is bringing the USS Cushing home from the Persian Gulf on a course that will take it right through the Strait of Malacca. The Captain's got a lot on his mind. The Cushing's a good ship, a Spruance-class destroyer: lean, fast, and armed to the teeth, with a few Special Weapons in its hold. But the Strait is always dangerous territory, chancy to navigate; and there's a major typhoon coming its way. Worse, the Cushing's been assigned to carry a batch of Tigers - civilians, family members of the officers and men - from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to Yokosuka in Japan.Meanwhile the Royal Australian Navy, wary of potential danger in the waters to Australia's northeast, has been keeping tabs on the Malacca Strait pirates. Then a source passes on a startling story about an Indonesian pirate who plans to capture a US destroyer - and might actually succeed. At moments like this the RAN has its own people who can be counted on to deal with any situation. They can't afford to have nuclear weapons falling into the hands of pirates and terrorists. They'll see to it that that doesn't happen - even if, in a pinch, it means the loss of an American ship.The long-gathered storm breaks over the Cushing, and under cover of that storm an ambush explodes around its ears. Boarded by pirates, unseen by satellites, cut off from its battle group, the ship blunders, almost out of control, through the shallow reef-strewn waters of the Strait. Read Less