For years Brigadier General Francis Xavier Hummel, a decorated military hero, has petitioned the United States government to honor his men who have lost their lives in service to their country during highly covert military operations by providing their families the same benefits and tributes due other war veterans. For years his efforts have been scorned. Now, angry and determined to seek justice, Hummel and a crack team of commandos seize control of Alcatraz Island, taking hostage a group of tourists. If reparations are not immediately forthcoming, Hummel plans to launch a battery of rockets charged with lethal V.X. poison gas on the San Francisco Bay area. The city's only hope for survival is FBI chemical/biological weapons expert, Stanley Goodspeed, and a top-secret federal prisoner, John Patrick Mason, who also happens to be the only known convict to have escaped the island fortress.