Paul (Ammar) Mercer, a disillusioned twenty five year old who becomes extremely frustrated with the way big money influences the government at the expense of the poor and downtrodden, is recruited by a radical Islamic terrorist cell. The former Berkeley physics student secretly begins to develop a laser weapon - a powerful, portable device with an invisible beam capable of killing at great distances with great precision. Jim Campbell, head of an FBI antiterrorist taskforce unexpectedly becomes acquainted with the powerful capabilities of lasers through his nephew David Cardwell, a graduate engineering student at Berkeley and a friend of Paul's. This connection leads him to gradually uncover a massive conspiracy: a web of intrigue, deceit, and unexpected alliances that reaches to the White House itself. Ammar and Jim become entrenched in a subtle, deadly game of cat and mouse that takes the reader from the Bay Area, to Reno, Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City and then on to Washington, DC, where the viability of the laser weapons system - and the identity of its financiers/benefactors - are revealed in a sudden, startling climax.