In an America driven to near bankruptcy by crushing foreign debt and susceptible to outside forces, the Talos Corporation stands out as a major success story, training soldiers and security forces from around the world and providing logistics and troops for nearly all branches of the United States government. But Talos has other plans. Three FBI agents, first encountered in Quantico, stand between Talos's CEO Axel Price and absolute control. When the President is shot and her second-in-command is found at the scene of a horrific crime, Rebecca Rose- on extended sabbatical from the FBI-is thrust back into service to investigate threads that lead deeper and deeper into Price's organization. Fouad Al-Husam is working undercover in Lion City, Texas, at the core of Talos, where he has uncovered and hidden critical information. Meanwhile agent William Griffin follows a bloody trail of domestic terrorism fro the Midwest into the heart of Talos's influence. Enter Nathan trace, victim of a violent incident in the Middle East that led to post-traumatic stress disorder and forced him to enroll in a treatment program, code-named “Mariposa.” The Mariposa subjects begin to experience unexpected side effects that indicate something has gone terribly wrong. Liberated from nearly all human emotions and concerns-and all mental limits-they have become brilliant and lethal sociopaths. They are out of control-the smartest men on the planet, the deadliest. Yet without Trace's help, Rose and her fellow agents will be unable to stop the plan that Price has set into motion-a plan that could leave America shattered and utterly unable to defend itself.

In an America driven to near bankruptcy with crushing foreign debt, the Talos Corporation stands out as a major success story—training soldiers and security forces from around the world and providing logistics and troops for nearly all branches of the United States government. But Talos has another plan in mind—the destruction of the federal system and constitutional law.

Three FBI agents are all that stands between Talos’s CEO Axel Price and the subversion of our nation. Fouad Al-Husam is working undercover in Lion City, Texas, on the Talos Campus—but he may have just overplayed his hand. Agent William Griffin will engage in a desperate diversion to try to rescue Al-Husam, and the top-secret information he literally carries in his blood.

Rebecca Rose is called into action to partner with an unlikely hero: Nathan Trace, one of a team of four who created and programmed the thinking machines that are about to help Axel Price in his plans for domination. Trace and his colleagues were caught up in a violent incident in the Middle East several years ago, and experienced Post-Traumatic Stress disorder. All of them were forcibly enrolled in a treatment program sponsored by Talos Corporation, code-named Mariposa—which supposedly cured their PTSD. But now they are beginning to notice unexpected side effects. The Mariposa subjects are being liberated from nearly all human emotions and concerns—and all mental limits—to become brilliant sociopaths. They are out of control and they must die.

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