Severral grad students share an old house at a Midwest university. Kate Summers believes she has a better way to read the genetic code and Brian O'Leary is working to help develop a quantum computer.
An ambitious White House aide and a crusty senator tap Dougherty from the FBI and Harrington from the CIA to head a task force to deal with industrial espionage. They turn to Timmons, the deputy director of Homeland Security, for advice.
A personal tragedy sends Hidehiko Takayama, a manager at Yokohama Industries, to America to acquire inside information about corporate and university research projects. He notes an anomaly in the building housing the experimental computer.. Takayama is soon joined by two Chinese agents on a similar misson.
The students accidentally discover two listening devices that have been planted in their house. They soon realize help is needed and turn to an unlikely set of players including Celeste Butterfield, a member of the new task force, and Don Bricker, a police detective. The game is on.
