A late-night phone call. No one seems to know what happened at Hamlin laboratory. There was a fire. There was a terrorist attack. There was a mass breakout. Director Hall is dead. Abhinav Howell is one of a few neuroscientists being transferred from the now-defunct Special Security Project Operations division of the Department of Homeland Security to Washington D.C.

Abhi gets a promotion, a big raise, and zero answers. Normally, he loves his job. He loves being steeped in the inner-workings of the human brain, decoding the complex reactions that go into each decision people make. Testing on live, human subjects is the only thing that gives him pause. But they're all volunteers. They know the risks. And then a man with all the symptoms of a volunteer appears on the streets of Baltimore, injuring a dozen people or more. A man who never volunteered for the SSPO.

A man who, it turns out, was at Hamlin the night Director Hall disappeared. As Abhi tries to find his footing in the new department, the doubts creep in. Perhaps the tests aren't so carefully administered. Perhaps the test subjects aren't really volunteers. Perhaps he should stop asking questions before he puts himself in danger. Perhaps he can't.