In the Texas desert a city with a potent past seeks to become a new leader of industry by transforming its local college into the state's newest public university...but not everyone is happy about it. As the chess game of political intrigue is played out men ranging from humble residents to local power players to national politicians have increasingly greater stakes in seeing their plans come to fruition and will go to greater, and more twisted, lengths to win. Hiding in their shadows, a diabolical newcomer quietly plans to unleash an unspeakable horror.