When the DEA shut down it s dummy corporation operation codenamed SWORDFISH in 1986 they had generated $400 million which they let sit around; fifteen years of compound interest has swelled it to $9.5 billion. A covert counter-terrorist unit called Black Cell headed by the duplicitous and suave Gabriel Shear wants the money to help finance their raise-the-stakes vengeance war against international terrorism but it s all locked away behind super-encryption. He brings in convicted hacker Stanley Jobson who only wants to see his daughter Holly again but can t afford the legal fees to slice into the government mainframes and get the money.