"It is 1908, and as the world plunges toward war, a brilliant American battleship gun designer dies in an apparent suicide. The man's grief-stricken daughter wants the Van Dorn Detective Agency to prove otherwise. ace agent Isaac Bell soon realizes that the clues point not to suicide but to murder. When more suspicious deaths follow, it becomes clear that someone is orchestrating the destruction of America's brightest technological minds--all connected to a top secret project. As the intrigue deepens, Bell finds himself pitted against German, Japanese, and British spies with their own lethal missions to accomplish. But Bell knows that this case involves more than the future of his country--it's the fate of the world." - Publisher.