Dr. Mallory Hayes, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) medical investigator, is a committed physician and researcher quietly battling height and air-flight anxiety. When a tsunami devastates the coast of Southern California, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) establishes a camp to house the tens of thousands of people displaced by the disaster, and the Army is brought in to provide medical services. Mallory is dispatched to the camp by the CDC to prevent the potential spread of disease from contaminated water. What the young, attractive doctor discovers is far worse than anything she could have imagined—an accelerated HIV-like virus, and a common, everyday microbe, which are proving to be unfailingly deadly. Soon, Mallory is called upon to determine the virus’ origins. But it turns out to be a complicated story involving a scientist with psychopathic tendencies, a devout Islamic extremist, and a misguided adolescent. Will the virus itself continue to spread throughout the country, without either a cure or a treatment?