Ellison receives a phone call from old Army buddy Sam Holland, who asks for help.

A birthday party for Katrina, a young Russian woman, is interrupted by a vicious attack that claims the life of two men and ends with the theft of a mysterious black suitcase from the woman's boyfriend, Sergei. Ellison and Sandburg receive little cooperation from the witnesses, but Ellison's "Sentinel" intuition leads him to discover a gold neckchain worn by Sergei is, in fact, radioactive.

Ellison and Sandburg spot a man, a mob accountant, who they thought was dead. When they try to catch up to him, he nearly runs them over escaping in his car.