Geologists warned it was inevitable that an earthquake would collapse the Three Gorges Dam. When it finally did, a wall of water six hundred feet high rushed down the Yangtze River, destroying other dams as it went. Fifteen million Chinese died in the worst natural disaster in human history.

This is what people are told. It is a lie.

Kimberly Trayne has no time for the past. She's a free woman now. There are family reunions to avoid, realm championships to win, and an AI-human hybrid in her life. Or not. It's complicated.

What she needs most of all is a vacation. Kim's heard about those; they sound nice. When Mike mentions he has family--of a sort--in China, she even has a destination.

What she doesn't know is that behind the Great Firewall of China there are secrets. Secrets about who lives there. Secrets about who dies. Secrets of power and control.

Secrets people will kill to keep.

Stuff happens, they say. Even after flying halfway around the world, it still keeps happening to her.