Dr Alex Thomas wants vengeance and she has the knowledge and determination to get it. Her targets are ruthless, faceless bureaucrats, hidden in the shady world of intelligence. In order to force them into the open she targets critical workers in the nuclear industry, creating a nuclear threat to which the authorities must respond. In the face of such a threat, Robert Branton, an expert in the same field, is approached to help identify the credibility and scope of the danger. Increasingly threatened and obsessed by her, Branton gambles everything on a wild card opportunity and develops a system to take her for his own. But the system tight-couples them in a way neither could have anticipated…. And the authorities haven’t finished with them yet....