SACROS is a box of circuits that can control or cripple satellite communications. It's secure in a government base known as the Hive. But someone will stop at nothing to obtain it. And Nick Beckett is sure there's a traitor in the Hive.

Beckett is framed. He almost loses his life. He meets Ros, who runs a high-tech gadgets company called Gizmos, and her friend Ed, who positively enjoys taking life-threatening risks. And together they hunt the villains.

The BUGS team is formed, and is immediately drawn into the vicious world of miniaturised weapons and customised viruses — one of which infects Ed. It's a race against time as Ros hacks into the computers of Cyberscope while Beckett chases a consignment of microbes that could exterminate the human race.

Life is never dull for the BUGS team. It's rarely even safe.