Julia Evans: billionaire, owner of Event Horizon, for fifteen years undisputed power behind the world's economic renaissance. And in trouble.

With her computer-genius husband missing and rival companies suddenly claiming to have acquired a technology impossibly superior to anything on Earth, Julia has no time to notice an anonymously delivered flower. But this flower has genes millions of years in advance of terrestrial DNA. Is it a cryptic alien message or a poignant farewell from her husband?Only Greg Mandel can discover its origin, but he is not alone in his desperate search. A vicious mercenary killer, a jade merchant, and a high-priced courtesan all have a part to play.