Bright, young, and ambitious, Quinn Barry desperately wants to be an FBI agent, even as she programs databases in the basement of the J. Edgar Hoover building. But Quinn's career—and her life—are about to change wildly. Testing a new program, Quinn's computer savvy turns up a mysterious DNA link among five gruesome murders. A link that the old FBI system had been carefully programmed to miss. A link that nearly costs Quinn her job, and soon, her life.

Pitted against a conspiracy of unimaginable proportions, Quinn is determined to uncover what someone very powerful wants to keep hidden—dark, dirty secrets involving high levels of government. She turns for help to her boyfriend, an ambitious young CIA agent, only to flee to protect herself and, she hopes, him. Finally an ally emerges from the most unlikely place of all, and with his help Quinn will at last turn the tables on her shadowy assailants—and land herself in the clutches of a sadistic, brilliant madman who holds the key to it all.