After getting an early retirement offer from IBM, Greg Wilson started an electronic publishing company with his girlfriend, KC. It didn't take long for him to realize that leaving high tech was a mistake. He hated everything about his new life, and when it became apparent that KC had fallen for a young writer, Greg decided to make a clean break and find something else to do.
An old Navy buddy refers Greg to Eastern Shore Security in Maryland. Eastern shore provides security services to VIPs throughout the world and part of the service requires the collection of signals intelligence about threats to their clients. They also collect intelligence about threats to the country.
Greg is hired by Eastern Shore to develop an AI system to filter out the important signals for immediate action. In the course of development and testing, the new system uncovers plot by Chinese operatives to damage Naval vessels and destroy the financial system used by midwest farmers. Eastern's boss along with a friend who is an FBI agent discover that an FBI director and his father are working for the Chinese.
The story follows Greg from his split from New York through the development of the AI system and his interaction with the Watson computer system that he had a hand in developing.
