Kit Olsen ostensibly works for Universal Computer Technologies as a programmer.  Behind the walls of the UCT building, however, is something very different.  UCT is, in reality, a front for CIA operations.  Kit’s job is to decode computer programs and discover their function.  Just before Thanksgiving, she is reassigned to work in one of the most highly-classified sections of the building.  She will be working with Chen Ling.  Chen will translate the code from the Chinese; Kit will decode it. 

On her way out that evening, Kit witnesses the abduction of her long-time friend, Joan, in the building’s parking structure.  Carter Leigh, a veteran reporter for NBC covers the event.  There are many unanswered questions, such as, how did the van in question get through the building’s supposedly air-tight security?  And who took Joan?  And why? 

As time progresses, the police discover that large sums of money have been funneled through the bank accounts of both Joan and another employee, who has been missing for several weeks.  They begin to suspect that the pair has run off together; and that Kit is covering for them.  Pressured by the police on one side, her absentee husband on another, Kit feels her nerves fraying.  But this is only the beginning.  When she receives a phone call, demanding the Chinese program in exchange for her teenage son, Kit and Carter begin a journey into a world of espionage, deceit, and danger.