When three grisly murders mystify pathologists, Dr. Edward Kim of the United States Science Agency calls on Axel Tressler. By day, Tressler is an ordinary university biology teacher. But, endowed with special capabilities, he also carries out dangerous, top-secret government missions. Kim asks Tressler to go undercover in the Silicon Valley to investigate the improper use of nanoparticles as biological weapons. Kim believes someone is leaking top-secret information to a terrorist organization. Tressler's mission takes him to Boston, Mexico, Great Britain, and Iran, where he faces terrorists involved in the nanoparticle technologies. Tressler must rely on all of his unique skills and abilities-including a high-tech internal computer and an indestructible skin covering-to rescue five American students held in an Iranian jail and thwart Iran's attempts to build a nuclear arsenal.