The investigation of a black politician's murder is complicated by the involvement of the syndicate. Shannon's boyhood friend and adult nemesis, Bunky James (Ron O'Neal), is released from jail to help him investigate the politician's murder which looks like an execution by terrorists.

A charred body is found in the debris of a building obviously torched by an arsonist and Shannon uncovers a trail that leads to a local hood who used to know Shannon when they were boys. Shannon is assigned to the arson squad when several uninhabited and abandoned buildings are torched.