EVERYTHING goes wrong when the first research expedition from the future lands in New York City in the summer of 2000. Instead of arriving together, the time-travelers are separated and scattered across the ancient metropolis. Even worse, the professor in charge of the expedition is killed when he materializes in the middle of a busy street-and the device he carries to take them back home is destroyed in the accident. Their project in a shambles before they have even started, now they find themselves stranded in the past-and their troubles are only beginning. After seeing her mentor die right before her eyes, Team Leader Anya attempts to salvage something from the disaster, starting with rounding up the rest of the travelers. She doesn't know it yet, but even that much has already become an impossible task. Research Assistant Samantha finds her own team leader just in time to witness one of her colleagues stab him to death. The only witness to the killing, she chases the culprit through the city-but the murderer has the perfect plan for escaping justice. Dazed and disoriented in East Harlem, Team Leader Page is being mugged when graduate student Matt Walker runs to her rescue-but playing the white knight will plunge him into improbable peril and lead him into a trap from which there is no escape.