Holly Barker, the sexy, no-nonsense former police chief from Orchid Beach, Florida, has been known to crack cases that even the FBI couldn't break. Now Lance Cabot, whom readers will remember from The Short Forever, makes Holly an offer she can't refuse: to join an elite intelligence unit hunting down terrorists on American soil. Their first prey, however, may turn out to be all-American. Teddy Fay, the ex-CIA technology wizard introduced in Capital Crimes, apparently blew up his own airplane while being hotly pursued by the FBI and U.S. Navy pilots. But now a series of attacks on a new kind of victim - terrorists with diplomatic immunity - makes some in the government, up to and including the president of the United States, believe Teddy may be back. And Holly finds herself in the thick of the hunt.
