The FBI treats an attack on a member of Congress as one of those unfortunate incidents. Before they can identify the killer or his motive, a second legislator falls. Both victims were members of a sensitive committee, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Recognizing that they have a serial killer on their hands, the president, the president-elect and the acting director of the FBI select an outsider with a reputation as an intuitive investigator to head up a task force. Inspector Conor Gifford reluctantly accepts the assignment and learns that that the first two victims have committed unspeakable acts that provoked the retaliation that led to their deaths. While coping with anxious politicians hiding their fears behind angry attacks on the investigators and other government institutions, Gifford’s search for the killer takes him deep into the murky world of intelligence. Before he uncovers the secrets that conceal the killer’s angry quest for revenge, Gifford is attacked on the same night that a third victim falls. Using information provided by a foreign intelligence service, Gifford sets a trap which springs in a way that provides him with success and dismay. He learns that a second killer has taken advantage of the panic caused by the actions of the first and is responsible for the third and then a fourth victim. Now, thoroughly involved, Gifford confronts an unexpected adversary.
