The book starts by telling about the problems occurring in the hospital where Michael works. Too many patients are dying of causes that would not normally kill them. When Michael watches a little girl's life slip away despite the best that modern medicine can deliver, he becomes depressed about his choice of careers. Across town, a popular and prominent Congressman dies - his skull shattered by a shotgun, but police investigators determine the death to …showed first 75 words of 645 total…

…showed last 75 words of 645 total…lot of people have been replaced with mannequins, so they go to the Research Center. As they break in, they discover three patients that supposedly died strapped to tables in the back. After a long tussle with Waverly and all of his partners at the Research Center, Shannon, Michael, and three other patients that had been stolen from the hospital come out on top. Waverly is killed in the fight, and all of his workers.