The early morning opening procedures at a New England ski area become very unusual when a ski patroller finds a dead body of an obviously murdered man lying frozen on the trail. As the state police begins their investigation, they find that the dead man was a United Nations security investigator following the trail of a missing representative. As the report of the murder finds its way through the various local state and federal channels, it coincidently turns out that the lead ski patroller at the scene was a US Navy Reserve SEAL. When he was on active duty, he had been attached to a navy security team, and the investigation experience he had is going to be needed again. After being reactivated into the regular navy, he joins forces with a local state trooper and his previous SEAL team members in Washington DC to follow and find where the murdered man's investigation had been compromised. The trail turned quickly from a local murder case into an international chase to rescue and save a kidnapped woman. The action goes from South America to Europe and finally back to Vermont. The twists and turns that involve murder, kidnapping, international energy sources, illegal finances, international transfer of money, and political entrapments make this a case of intrigue and corruption at the highest levels of education and government.