In remote pockets of the Third World, a deadly virus is quietly sweeping through impoverished farming villages and shantytowns with frightening speed. Meanwhile, in Washington, a three-word message left in a safe-deposit box may be the key to stopping the crisis—if, that is, former CIA operative Charles Mallory can decipher the puzzle before time runs out. Mallory begins to discover the traces of a secret war with a bold objective: to create a new, technologically advanced society. With the help of his brother Jon, an investigative reporter, he needs to outwit a new kind of superpower and break the story to the world before it's too late.