When Veronica Tremain's brother is brutally murdered, both she and the FBI try to make sense of a bizarre conspiracy that seems to be targeting genetic professors. While searching for secret papers her brother told her about in his last frantic telephone call before his death, Veronica meets three other people on the run from his killers; Bryce Johnson who has been working with her brother; Rebecca Armely, a former research assistant in the genetics program; and little Abel, Rebecca's son, an unusual but very lovable child whom Rebecca would do anything - including die - to protect. Then Rebecca is killed, shot by a sniper whose apparent target was the child himself. Now Veronica, Bryce and Abel are on the run, trying to figure out why one small boy should be so important to a band of killers who seem unstoppable.