By day Dagmar Shaw orchestrates vast games with millions of players spanning continents By night she tries to forget the sound of a city collapsing in flames around her She tries to forget the faces of her friends as they died in front of her She tries to forget the blood on her own handsBut then an old friend approaches Dagmar with a project The project he pitches is so insane and so ambitious she cant possibly say no But this new venture will lead her from the world of alternate-reality gaming to one even more complex A world in which the players are soldiers and spies and the name of the game is survival