A prerecorded message on a computer memory chip arrives at the office of Houston Mayor Amon Burlingame. It's just the beginning of what turns out to be a nuclear terrorist threat. The mayor must deal with the infighting between the local, police, sheriff's office and the F.B.I. all while trying to figure out what is best for his city.

The University of Houston sends over the first available physics professor, an attractive young woman who has a predisposed dislike for men of power and influence, like the mayor. Reluctantly she become Mayor Burlingame's advisor and together they follow the clues and instructions from "Prometheus" as the law enforcement agencies do their thing.

They go so far as to talk to recently captured and jail Irish Republican Army terrorist to understand how such people's minds work and what their goals truly are. In the end the evidence is too obvious to ignore; the threat is real.