FBI agents Dillon Savich and Dane Carver are nearly killed while trying to rescue popular entertainer Pinky Womack from kidnappers. Lured to a motel in Pumis City, Virginia, by a known snitch, the only thing the agents discover is a glowing red timer. The place is demolished in a catastrophic explosion, but everyone survives.

The same snitch leads them to Arlington National Cemetery, promising the agents Pinky's safe return. The search is interrupted when Savich takes a fateful call on his cell. The mysterious caller taunts Savich with other threats-against him, and against his wife, fellow agent Lacey Sherlock. Up against an untraceable foe-not even MAX can locate him-Savich and Sherlock find themselves fighting an unstable villain with a very long memory.

At the same time, Agent Ruth Warnecki's passion for treasure hunting leads her to Winkel's Cave and a cave chamber that really shouldn't exist-as well as a dead student from Stanislaus Music School, left there for eternity. Some students have wandered quite far from the beaten path, with terrible consequences.