Clark is following the cases of several missing students gifted with extreme intelligence. Reluctantly, he accepts an assignment to profile a consumer genetics agency that is engaged in research in the old Fort Monmouth army base in New Jersey. Clark gets caught up in the whirlwind of technology, ethics, and temptation. Clark is drawn to the founder, an enigmatic woman genius who is collecting and curating a main database of genetic code from millions of people and cataloging epigenetic markers. After identifying and harvesting the good genes, CRISPR-Cas9 technology can add them to one's genome to increase disease prevention, longevity and human potential. But as Clark explores the profound changes gene therapy will bring to the human race, the smart persons creating this brave new world begin to meet various tragic ends, and he simultaneously uncovers something far deeper and more sinister.