After a career in Army intelligence, Porter Beck is back in Nevada, doing the same lawmans job his father once did. His sparsely populated jurisdiction is usually very quiet. But on the night of July 4th, Sheriff Beck sees a strange light streak across the dark sky. He prays it wont crash in drought-stricken Lincoln County, where the wildfires are already burning. But it does, and the resultant explosion triggers an avalanche of death and destruction in the high desert, impacting Becks oldest friend, the community at large, even his sister, Brinley. Becks search for answers leads him to a young girl that Brinley is mentoring, a sixteen-year-old tech-whiz, Mercy Vaughn, currently incarcerated at the local youth centre. Despite all the assurances hes given, Beck senses the young hacker may be up to more than her jailers know.
