The American intelligence community is retooling, and so is the way in which Suffolk County’s commanding officer of homicide, Detective Lieutenant Theodore Groche, conducts day-to-day business. Earlier in time, covert operative, Justin Barnes, helped dismantle a global terrorist network and terminated its leader, serial killer Malcolm Columba. Two years have elapsed, and Columba’s protégé, Clarence Emery, known as The Teacher, has surfaced in New York City. This terrifying figure, who often befriends his victims before butchering them, prefers to get up close and very personal with his quarry. Consequently, every law enforcement agency in the country is on high alert. Sanctioned by hierarchy and shrouded in secrecy, Justin Barnes’ mission is to hunt down and terminate Clarence Emery. But who is hunting whom? Justin and his beautiful associate, Jacqueline Rubino, ultimately ask themselves that same question when two women are found murdered at Pipes Cove in Greenport, Long Island—crimes that unquestionably have Emery’s signature. The Teacher can hardly wait to match wits with the black American maverick enforcer and Justin Barnes, in turn, obsesses on the moment when he and the madman will finally meet face-to-face. Hence, the game of cat and mouse begins.