Late afternoon, Virginia, and a woman is on the run. Her husband, a former U.S. Senator named Lincoln Bowe, has been missing for days. Kidnapped? Murdered? She doesn't know, but she thinks she knows who's involved, and why. And that she's next. Hours later a phone rings in the pocket of Jacob Winter. An Army Intelligence veteran, Winter specialises in what he thinks of as forensic bureacracy. Congress, the Pentagon, the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, when something goes wrong, Winter kicks over rocks until he finds out what really happened. The White House is his main client, and the chief of staff is on the phone now. If Bowe isn't located soon, he is told, all hell will break loose.