FBI Special Agent Jay (nee Janet) Fletcher is very good at what she does. An agency hacker, Jay can use computers to find out anything about anybody - but she doesn`t always go through the proper channels. When Jay blows a murder case by obtaining evidence before she gets a warrant, she`s bounced from D.C. to Santa Fe, where helping out on an arson detail is supposed to keep her out of trouble. Missing the power, the thrill, of her old assignment, she practices using her computer tracking system on an ongoing investigation into Santa Fe`s own serial killer. To her amazement, her system works - and this time she meets the killer in person, not just on-line. When she discovers that the murderer is hooked into a secret network of people - gruesome killers like himself - who play an all-too realistic computer simulation game, she embarks on a personal quest that takes her far beyond the safe boundaries marked by warrants, Bureau procedure, and due process. Jay`s presence on the network has alerted the man who invented this grisly game - a serial killer the Bureau has been hunting for nearly twenty years. Jay and this killer move ever closer toward a shattering confrontation, with Jay`s former colleagues close behind them, in one of the most exciting and thought-provoking thrillers to come along in years.
