It was less than a week ago when 18-year-old Bob Wilkinson crashed his senior prom with his best friend, class clown Pete Dimkowski, only to find their classmates missing and the downtown Chicago venue a gruesome crime scene. The abductions have since given Bob the opportunity to spend time with his dream girl, head cheerleader Lori Rainsmith, who arrived on the scene the same time as he and Pete.

Bob isn't in like Flint, however. For one thing, while Lori was on the outs with her boyfriend, quarterback Josh Brewer, at the time of prom, Josh is among the missing and Lori wants little more than to see him again.

And for another thing, Bob, Pete, and Lori's pursuit of the truth has put their lives in danger. Now, Pete has disappeared, sent forward in time and space to colonized, dystopian Mars, after he fails to save Dana Golding, the pregnant secretary of Wesley Arendt, CEO of the shadowy Chicago Genetics Center, from a similar fate.

Wesley has been sidelined courtesy of a head injury, but his counterpart on Mars, Chancellor Ross, is alive and kicking. Don't let Ross's polite manner or penchant for T'ai chi fool you.

His numbers may be depleted, but he still holds the Freedom Contingent Brigade's resistance leader prisoner. Although he's tasked Lucien Reynolds, a mole who betrayed Susie Walker and the FCB in the past, with getting back in her good graces, Ross has much more to lose than she does.

Susie, so world-weary, yearns to believe the chancellor's good intentions, but knows that doing so may be at her peril. Meanwhile, Josh and Pete debate whether they should send everyone back via the time chamber .

. .

or simply destroy it. Back home, tragedy brings Bob and Lori closer together, as an unexpected (and undeniable) romantic charge grows between them.

They never lose sight of the mystery at hand, however, and discover that the full truth lies closer to home than they ever thought possible. .