r trusted search-and-rescue Labrador, Hawk, must race against the clock before a diabolical killer strikes again . . .

Somewhere in the Washington, D.C. area, a woman lies helpless in a box. Barely breathing. Buried alive. In Quantico, the FBI receives a coded message from the woman's abductor. He wants to play a game: decipher the clues, save the girl. The FBI's top cryptanalysts crack the code and Special Agent Meg Jennings and her K-9 partner, Hawk, scramble to the scene of the crime--too late. But the killer's game is far from over . . .

Another message, another victim. The deadly pattern is repeated--again and again. As the body count mounts, Meg decides to break protocol and bring in her brilliant sister, Cara, a genius at word games, to decipher the kidnapper's twisted clues. Meg knows she's risking her career to do it, but she's determined not to let one more person die under her and Hawk's watch. If the plan fails, it could bite them in the end. And if it leads to the killer, it could bury them forever . . .

"Tense and exciting, Sara Driscoll has created a new power couple, Meg and her FBI K-9, Hawk." --Leo J. Maloney, author of Arch Enemy