In remote pockets of the Third World, a deadly virus is quietly sweeping through impoverished farming villages and shanty towns with frightening speed and potency. In West Africa, an undercover dissident journalist learns of an investment consortium planning to funnel billions of dollars into the continent. Before he can publicize details, he is savagely murdered. And in Washington, a three-word message left in a safe deposit box may be the thread that connects these seemingly unrelated incidents--if, that is, two brothers can decipher it before time runs out.