 Taggert, a U.S. industrialist, has acquired a jade figure, which has great religious significance to Kuala Rokat. That nation is a small but strategically located nation which borders China. Taggert s acquisition threatens to undo years of sensitive U.S. diplomacy but there is no legal way to force him to give the figure back. Phelps devises a plan which, among other things, calls for causing havoc with Taggert s mainframe computer, Rollin impersonating an academic from Kuala Rokat and using a highly trained cat in getting the jade away from Taggert.