Plot summary
A series of murders in the United States targets personnel involved with POSEIDON SPEAR, an operation to take down members of the terrorist organization Umayyad Revolutionary Council (URC), after its leader Saif Rahman Yasin (known as "the Emir") was captured by the Campus twenty years ago. [a] His son Rafa leads a new separatist cell, Umayyad Caliphate, based on the Pakistani side of Kashmir.
Director of national intelligence Mary Pat Foley and attorney general Dan Murray inform Campus director of operations John Clark about the killings. Clark tasks operative Amanda “Mandy” Cobb and director of information technology Gavin Biery with investigating the murders as FBI special agents, while he plans a secret mission to capture and kill Rafa.
Meanwhile, Jack Ryan Jr. arrives in Delhi, India with his fiancée Lisanne Robertson, where they survive an assassination attempt from a suicide bomber. Arriving in Amritsar for the wedding of Lisanne's friend and doctor Srini Rai, Jack meets her father, Assurance Global Industries (AGI) CEO Daval Rai, as well as AGI's chief operating officer Fahim Bajwa, Rafa's half brother. Later debriefing with Clark about the attempt on his life, the latter asks him to accompany Campus operative Bartosz “Midas” Jankowski to the Pakistani border, evading another assassination attempt from Albanian mercenaries sent by Fahim.
Arriving in Kashmir, Midas is accompanied by Tajik mujahideen fighter Rustam Rajabov as he locates Rafa and the Umayyad fighters. However, Rafa's contact in Pakistani intelligence (ISI), brigadier general Imran Khan, warns him off; Rafa's men get into a gunfight with Midas, injuring him. Rustam informs Jack, who leaves Lisanne on a train bound for the opening of AGI's new bridge at the Karakoram mountain range. He links up with Rustam and Midas and locates a suspected Umayyad camp. Meanwhile, Lisanne relays intelligence to Clark on the train's passengers, including Khan, who is revealed as the mole providing information on the POSEIDON SPEAR operatives to Rafa and Fahim.
In Washington State, Cobb and Biery investigate the murder of a POSEIDON SPEAR operative and his family, leading them to the Hanford nuclear site with sheriff Mitch Whitcomb. Unbeknownst to them, Rafa had ordered the destruction of the site and the subsequent poisoning of the nearby Columbia River, similar to an attempt by his father to destroy the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository and citing the At-Takwir. Cobb, Biery, and Whitcomb get into a gunfight with the Albanians and Umayyad fighters, who are later eliminated by the Hanford site's quick response team.
Meanwhile, Campus operative Kendrick Moore, Green Beret snipers Cary Marks and Jad Mustafa, and Marine Raider Tom Buck perform a HALO jump to Jack and Midas's location in Kashmir using an experimental aerial vehicle named RAVEN. [b] They raid the Umayyad camp but fail to find Rafa there; nevertheless, they find intel about the planned attacks at Hanford and Karakoram. Jack reunites with Lisanne and returns to the train, which is later ambushed by Rafa and his men, who take them hostage along with the Rai family, Fahim, Khan, and other foreign dignitaries. Jack kills Rafa and exposes Khan as the mastermind, leading to the ISI general killing Fahim before he is shot dead.
Moore, Mustafa, and Buck are awarded the Bronze Star by U.S. president Jack Ryan for apprehending Khan. Lisanne calls off her engagement with Jack.
