Outlaw privateer Amanda Callin craves power and revenge. Revenge for the life she believes others have forced her to live, and the power to control the colonies of Earth. Everything falls within her grasp when she kidnaps Alex Ballard, the colonies' foremost computer developer. Amanda faces several problems, however. She is prohibited from using drugs to extract his knowledge of colonial security, and despite her abuse, Alex refuses to cooperate. Resigned to his own death, Alex plays a desperate game of cat and mouse with his tormentor. Meanwhile, Alex's shipmate Captain Elise Danion and her crew frantically search for a way to snatch Alex from Callin's grasp. In their race to save him they run into an unforseen threat, and Elise finds herself in a three-way race to save his life. Now, not only must she outwit the privateers' leader, but an authority officer so fixated on stopping Callin's rising threat to colonial security that he's willing to forfeit Alex's life in the process.