By the time Special Investigator Vin Cooper arrives at the murder scene–the shark-infested waters off the Japanese coast–there's little left of the victim to prove that his death wasn't an accident. That's what the military wants Cooper to believe, but he isn't buying it. What kind of top secret project could the military be engaged in that would require the services of a foremost marine biologist and a genetic researcher? The ominous answer lies at the end of a trail of “accidental” deaths and presumed terrorist acts that leads Cooper to the ultimate showdown–with a secret shadow government convinced that its patriotic duty is to kill anyone who opposes it.