Three men are found dead in the locked second floor office of a Honolulu building, with no sign of struggle except ultra-fine, razor-sharp cuts covering their bodies. The only clue left behind is a tiny bladed robot, nearly unrecognizable to the human eye. In the lush forests of Oahu, a groundbreaking new technology has thrown open the door to a new era of bio-prospecting. An advance in micro robotics has put unheard of resources at the fingertips of science; trillions of previously unknown microorganisms, tens of thousands of species of bacteria, are being discovered, feeding a search for new life-saving drugs and profitable applications on a scale beyond anything previously imagined. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, a group of graduate students at the forefront of their fields are recruited to work at a cutting edge microbiology start-up. Nanigen MicroTechnologies’ exploratory work is conducted under a veil of secrecy, and promises the young researchers the chance to wield unprecedented new tools at the limits of scientific discovery. To participate they must commit now and come to Hawaii—or be left behind and watch their peers reap the rewards. However, when the true costs of Nanigen’s innovations are revealed in Oahu, the graduate students find themselves cast out of the stable certainties of the lab, thrust into a hostile wilderness, prey to a technology of radical and unbridled power. With nothing for protection but their specialized knowledge of the natural world, they are forced to face the rainforest, which is revealing a hidden environment of profound treasures—and intense danger—at every turn. And the only way out may be by harnessing the very powers of nature and technology that are pitted against them.