Michael and his ex-girlfriend KC Ryan have been blackmailed by a U.S. Army colonel. They are to travel to opposite ends of China, and each is responsible for stealing a piece of an ancient puzzle: a diary and a compass. With their lives dependent on each other's success, they must face off against the complex underworld of the Chinese triads, a twisted female assassin, and a madman whose only desire is to possess the secrets held within the pages of the diary--knowledge that would give him enormous power and lead to the downfall of nations. Moving from the glittering casinos of Macau to its dark and dangerous backstreets; from the palace at the heart of China's Forbidden City to the medieval castles of Spain; from the seaside mansions along the Amalfi Coast to an uncharted Pacific island, Michael is in a race against time. He has less that five days to uncover a five-hundred-year-old mystery--and to save KC from certain death.