Deep in the mountain wilderness
of Missouri, a lone hiker in the forests witnesses a brilliant pulse of light
that temporarily blinds her as she returns to her remote hometown of Clearwater.
Upon recovering her vision the following morning, she is shocked to find that
every single one of the towns three hundred inhabitants have vanished. Worse, Clearwater
looks as though nobody has set foot in it for more than half a century
The Defense Intelligence Agency,
struggling to root out the identities of the members of Majestic Twelve, a
powerful cabal suspected of discreetly directing world affairs for profit,
dispatches Ethan Warner and Nicola Lopez to Clearwater in an effort to discover
what happened to the population and why the news media hasnt covered the
remarkable vanishing.
They find a town deserted for
decades and yet the food in chillers remains fresh, evidence of recent
habitation concealed beneath the grime and filth of ages. Stumbling upon the
lone survivor, suddenly they are plunged into a conspiracy that could change
the world forever. From the forests of Missouri to the scorching deserts of
Nigeria, from Saudi Arabia to the high-tech laboratories of a massive nuclear
facility in France, they face a whirlwind of corporate espionage while being
pursued by hitmen charged with ensuring nobody ever learns of mass disappearances
that have occurred in remote towns around the world for decades