"Rookie FBI agent Odessa Hardwicke's life is derailed when she's forced to turn her gun on her partner. Walt Leppo, a decorated FBI agent, turned suddenly violent while apprehending a rampaging murderer. The shooting was self-defense, but she is placed on desk leave pending a full investigation. What most troubles her isn't the tragedy itself-- it's the shadowy presence she thought she saw fleeing Leppo's body after his death. Questioning her future with the FBI--and her sanity--Hardwicke accepts a low-level assignment to clear out the belongings of a retired agent in the New York office. What she finds there will put her on the trail of a mysterious figure named John Silence, a man of enormous means who claims to have been alive for centuries. He is either an unhinged lunatic... or humanity's only defense against unspeakable evil."--Provided by publisher.