It was just a hoverboard. Nobody was supposed to die. Dale Adams has worked hard to leave his troubled past behind for a brighter future at Emory University. But when he makes a discovery that will change humanity forever, avoiding the spotlight becomes the least of his concerns. Small experiments have attracted big attention. And not all who notice want Dale to be successful. Or even alive. As Dale's world collapses around him, his fate intertwines with that of a girl he hardly knows. Their only hope for survival is to disappear into Atlanta's seedy underbelly, the very place Dale has tried so hard to leave behind. Time is running out, but if they can survive long enough science will be rewritten by the most unlikely of authors.

"RESEARCHER UNLOCKS FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH!" When her discovery makes headlines around the world, Dr. Yoonie Brandt becomes an instant celebrity. But her study is soon attacked and ferociously discredited. The headlines vanish overnight. So, too, does the young geneticist. Three years later, wealthy businessman Joe Kettleman is on the run from a wife who wants him dead, detectives who want him for a double homicide, and a tumor that wants him for an early grave. Badly wounded and out of options, he slips away to a remote cabin in New Mexico. When supplies dwindle, Joe is forced to take a perilous journey through the deserts of the Bisti Badlands. Two days into what was supposed to be a five day trek, he comes across a town. A small city, really. Right in the middle of nowhere. And it's not on any map. That's when Joe's fate collides with that of a beautiful young woman, desperate to escape the strange city and making wild claims about a genetically-enhanced virus that will soon wipe out most of humanity. She's delusional, right? But within the city, Joe uncovers a mind-blowing secret. A secret protected and controlled by a global conspiracy... with a terrifying plan to change the world.