Robert Ludlum's The Altman Code

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When word reaches the President of the United States that a Chinese cargo ship is transporting chemicals to a rogue nation intent on creating new biological weapons, the President knows he must act quickly to obtain the proof he needs. Covert-One agent Jon Smith is sent to rendezvous in Taiwan with another agent who has acquired the ship's true manifest. But before Smith can get the document, he is ambushed, the second agent is murdered, and the evidence is destroyed. Smith escapes with only his life and a verbal message - the President's biological father is still alive, held prisoner by the Chinese for fifty years. As the mysterious ship draws closer to its end port, Smith is losing time in uncovering the truth about the vessel and its cargo - a truth that probes the secrets of the Chinese ruling party, a faction in Washington working to undermine the elected government, and an international cabal thursting the world to the brink of war ..