Max August and Pam Blackwell have been together for over a year now. If only there weren't a dead wife struggling back to life in the picture, it would be the best of times, but it's still pretty darn good.

Now Max learns that Mike Salinan and Diana Herring of the Necklace are planning an illicit week at Wickr, the fire festival held every Midsummer in the southern Nevada desert. A plan forms, involving a second couple whom Pam met briefly in Barbados: Coyote and Scorpio Rose. Too bad they have their own agendas.

But then, everyone has his own agenda, most certainly including the Necklace. Having kept their war criminals and bank profiteers out of jail, they're very close to full control of America. The only real challenge is coming from Max August, and their hunters are closing in.

And let's not forget about that dead wife, now walking the streets of London as a 17-year-old head case. Aleksandra, the diabola who drives the Necklace and made Eva Delia the way she is, has never forgotten. With total victory in sight, it's time to rid the world of that loose end.

At least they've all got work, because a whole lot of people don't.

It's 2009.