The phone call was short - a complaint from Mark Webley - a freshman at St. Mary's college in Maryland - reporting that every Thursday night he was picking up a coded message in morse code - that was being repeated verbatim all the way around the world by other ham radio operators. The situation is addressed at the next executive meeting at the Carlisle War College in Pennsylvania. A decision is made that it 'wouldn't hurt' to set up an informal ROTC program at various schools to explore the possibility that other 'unfriendly' nations might still be using primitive forms of communication against the United States. The situation explodes when Mark Webley - now an exchange student at the University of Gibraltar, intercepts communications that accurately describe the movement of US submarines in and out of the Mediterranean.
On the surface, this novel is a love story between Mark Webley and Maria Blasini, as they work their way through the maze trying to get to the end in one piece, and return to college where they belong. On a second level, it is a high action drama involving patriotism, loyalty, love, trust, and respect - as opposed to lying, cheating, treason and corruption, fueled by massive amounts of money. And finally, it is a warning to the United States military that although this book is fiction, there is truth in it which should not be ignored.
As for the horses? I guess you will have to read the book to find out!