In the past, Ryder has done lethal battle in the modern global wars of power politics, extremist ideology, corrosive disinformation, and outrageous greed. But now she finds herself in a battle arena whose dangers, while less obvious, are greater than anything the world has seen befor, the present and future war of weaponized quantum technology. When an elite Russian scientist and the American Secretary of Defense die, at the same time but half a world apart, of inexplicable sudden catastrophic brain damage, the world's intelligence services realize that the quantum war has truly begun.

Ryder and her long-time partner, Ben Butler, must discover who the true combatants are, and who are the good guys and the bad, but at the potential cost of their own lives.