The world's most renowned volcanologist mysteriously disappears after a lecture on geophysical catastrophes. Two policemen are found brutally executed on the steps of London's nearby Albert Hall. Then, Mount St Helen's suddenly and inexplicably erupts in Washington State, leaving a wake of death and destruction. The new, liberal administration in the White House ignores these apparent coincidences, but the retired Admiral Morgan, former National Security Adviser to the President, and Lt. Jimmy Ramshawe are shocked into action. Only a missile, launched from a nuclear submarine, could have had the power to blow up the volcano. Is this the fabled HAMAS terrorist, Major Ray Kerman, at work again? Their suspicions are quickly confirmed by a HAMAS ultimatum: Total military evacuation of the Middle East or the terrible threat of a mega-tsunami - the greatest tidal wave in 4000 years of world history. Both men know immediately what that means: the volcano Cumbre Vieja, glowering over the island La Palma in the Canaries. A nuclear missile, such as Kerman's brand-new, state-of-the-art Scimitar SL-2, launched straight at the heart of the volcano would explode the mountain into the Atlantic ocean and send a tidal wave towards the East Coast of the United States, at 400 miles an hour, with waves 150 feet high. Resolutely, the Pentagon refuses to buckle and Admiral Morgan is swept back into the White House to implement Operation High Tide - a desperate race to evacuate the East Coast and locate the nuclear submarine before it launches its deadly weapon.