Suddenly, Tannis was thrust back to his days as security director at China Lake, the U.S. Naval Weapons Center. In 1961, duplicates of the first heat-seeking air-to-air missile, the Sidewinder, began appearing on Soviet MIG fighters. British scientist David Harper was accused of revealing its design to the Russians. Jack Tannis cleared his name. The case was never solved.

With dizzying speed the past comes back to life...a body found in the night desert...a special navy team rushed in to investigte the murder...a beautiful woman's mysterious outpost in the desert...and David Harper, the key to everything, joining Tannis to ferret out the force behind the secret that started it all....