"THE VINE IMPERATIVE" boils over! The world is suspended within balances of power. Tense and delicate terms of peace, crisscrossing and humming just below the surface. The Vine plantings, undercover alien spies of a galaxy-spanning race, hold positions of infl uence all over the planet. Toyo Harada, Earth's most unstoppable psiot, amassed a bedrock of power through his corporate, political, and super powered maneuverings. A tenuous détente has long held between the slumbering giants, each with the world held loosely in their grip. Until now.