Phodex is the food of the future: cheap, easy to produce, and infinitely adaptable, it will banish famine forever. Its mutated form, on the other hand, is fatally toxic. The BUGS team is called in to protect the Phodex plant, but very soon Ros, Ed and Beckett are all that stand between mankind and extinction by poisoning. And Ros is already infected.

Meanwhile a new superconducting metal, R6, is found to have explosive properties that make it the perfect assassin's weapon. When a batch of the material is stolen Ros and Beckett hunt the thieves. Ed tracks down the missing metal — but gets tied up and has to hang around until the unstable substance detonates.

Power-hungry scientists, embittered researchers and professional assassins are almost a match for the BUGS team in this story of technological advances perverted into weapons of terror.