Earth is dying, circling the drain on life support. The future of the human race depends on space exploration, but they're running out of time. Parasitic insects are systematically killing the best scientific minds but no one knows why. Mable Wilkinson is the last hope to figure it out, she just doesn't know it yet. For years, her resourcefulness, intelligence, and penchant for problem-solving have put her at the top of a very short list of researchers, only she doesn't want to be part of it. Cast out at sixteen, Mable wrote off the problems of the world long ago. Now, her focus is on Hadley, her adopted little sister, and teaching her to survive in the cut-throat underground. Instead, both Mable and Hadley fall into the hands of the program's recruiter, Silas Arrenstein, and he's determined to have one of them. Mable can join up with the man and program who killed her brother, or she can leave Hadley to the same fate.