Caduceus 21 is the future of health care. But few people know the company's balance sheet is fueled by a hidden trade in human organs. And only one person suspects where those human organs are coming from. Dr. Nguyen-Anh Dupree has heard the rumors of human vultures preying on the Third World. From the clinic he runs in a rural Mexican village, he has tried to persuade a local youth that what awaits on the other side of the border might be far worse than capture by the border patrol. But even when the boy disappears crossing into Texas, Dupree cannot prove his dark suspicions. New York investment banker Maggie Sepulveda is an up-and-coming junior partner at Marx Dillon & Neil. She is about to land the deal of her career, financing the expansion of Caduceus 21. At first she is simply elated. But that elation turns to uneasiness and then to outright fear as the truth about her new client begins to emerge. On the surface, Caduceus 21 has seemed like the perfect answer to America's health-care crisis. But soon it will become the ultimate nightmare, a company under the control of a mysterious silent partner, a reclusive billionaire with a terrifying agenda of his own. While Dr. Dupree is working with two computer whizzes to hack into Caduceus 21's ultrasensitive files, Maggie Sepulveda is digging into the company's financial background. Soon they will be drawn together by the same shocking discovery--a discovery that the powers behind Caduceus 21 will do anything to keep secret. Soon they will be running for their lives. For the secret they have uncovered is nothing short of global murder. The only question remaining is whether they have the time and can find the proof to stop it.