"Conspiracy Within" pursues the unfolding drama as each revelation becomes more real and yet more appalling. Along the way, every reader gets an insider's look at the business of the Oval Office, the powerful anchor's desk at the nation's most popular TV investigative news program, international power politics in the halls of Moscow, and the ethical dilemma that pits patriotism against high-tech weapons on a nuclear submarine.

Typically, of course, vice presidents have largely ceremonial jobs, but this one realizes that little stops him from grabbing much greater and more insidious...