On a hot summer night, a scientist from the Centers for Disease Control is grabbed by unknown assailants in a shopping center parking lot. The authorities are desperate to save the doctor who's been vanished into thin air. One month later, the serenity of a sunny Sunday afternoon is shattered by the boom of a ground-shaking blast--followed by another seconds later. One of Atlanta's busiest and most important neighborhoods has been bombed--the location of Emery University, two major hospitals, an FBI field office, and the CDC. Medical examiner Sara Linton and her partner, Will Trent, an investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation rush to the scene--and into the heart of a deadly conspiracy.