World oil supplies are nearly depleted, plunging the United States into a protracted recession, the White House quietly forms a pact with Beijing to produce a sustainable alternative to gasoline: A desperate scheme to spare the nation of total anarchy. Hidden from a scandalous energy industry, Aqualene, a remarkable water-based fuel is born deep inside a NASA laboratory. Only sabotage can explain its mysterious destruction, calling for hundreds of top minds to resurrect the complex formula. Wary of threats by vested oil interests, Seattle mineralogist Adam Harlow reluctantly joins the search. A murder inside his makeshift lab amongst the ruins of Old Seattle suggests Harlow is onto something big but his troubles have only just begun! Can one man with a secret so vital to global stability stand up to the world's most powerful oil mogul, and avert a U.S. nuclear confrontation with China? Can Adam Harlow get his formula to NASA before Big Oil gets to him? From the bowels of Underground Seattle to the dizzy orbits of the International Space Station to the hazardous labyrinths of a covert California refinery, Aqualene ignites adventure, drama, and intrigue.