I'm just a high school biology teacher in southern California. I wrote a paper on bio-toxins in college. Nine months ago the government asked me to be the 'ordinary citizen' on a seven-member panel. For three days we brainstormed potential homegrown terrorist scenarios. That was all.

I thought.

"We're the only two left," John Ryder said, no emotion in his voice. "The others have been assassinated. If you want to live, you'll have to come with me."

Terrorists have adopted one of the team's scenarios, and if they're successful, it could claim a half-million lives. Samantha Waters and ex-Navy SEAL John Ryder are caught in the middle of a dark conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of power. They have to rely on each other to survive—and to somehow stop the nightmare scenario they imagined before it becomes a terrifying reality.