Lauren Pennington is celebrating her junior year abroad when life comes to a screeching halt. At Munich's Hofbrühaus, she engages in an innocent flirtation with a charming stranger for the length of a drink. Drink finished, Lauren leaves--only to be snatched from the streets and thrown into an unmarked van. In a globe-spanning chase, from the beer halls of Germany, to the tech gardens of California, to the skyscrapers of China, and finally the farmlands of Croatia, Aidan's team cracks levels of high-tech security and complex human mystery with a dogged determination. Drawing in teammates from the Forensic Instincts team (introduced in The Girl Who Disappeared Twice), the Zermatt Group will uncover the Chinese businessmen responsible, find the traitors within NanoUSA who are helping them, and save Lauren from a brutal death.