Nicknamed "Gepetto," a rogue scientist has left a trail of deformed fetuses across Eastern Europe--rejects from failed experiments at human cloning. Shocking evidence indicates that Gepetto has set up shop in England. With the life of at least one unwitting surrogate mother in the balance, Hood and Rachel race to bust a black market in human reproduction.

When a worker exhuming bodies from a church dies a gruesome death from a pox-like disease, Hood joins an emergency medical team to trace and chase a virulent hybrid virus. Authorities scramble to avoid a pandemic. But Rachel risks contamination, and the pursuit takes on a personal urgency.