When Nick Kangles, the wealthy host of a  global warming TV show, and Kate Stanton, the top notch microbiologist, try to solve the mystery of seven obelisks that are  sending out signals, they uncover the countdown of a threat to our civilization.

Kate meets Nick in the square of the Pantheon in Rome, when they share a table to avoid the rain.

He is travelling the world to convert people to fighting global warming by setting up greenhouse gas trading schemes, while she has been called in to help  find out what is eating the carbon in the massive oil deposit in the Ghawar Field in Saudi Arabia.

Nick and Kate detect signals from obelisks in Rome, Paris, London, New York and Egypt.

They set out on an increasingly dangerous hunt to find the link between these seven obelisks and a new microbe that threatens the world’s oil supply, and discover that  someone is willing to kill to keep the link secret.