When the DEA shut down its 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 duplicitious 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.