As an F-16 fighter pilot, Darwin Cole was a family man on top of his world. Now, he’s a washout drunk, living alone in a trailer in the Nevada desert. Haunted by what he saw on the display of the Predator drone he “piloted”—an Afghan child running for her life—he reluctantly joins three journalists seeking to discover the identity of the anonymous, and possibly rogue, intelligence operative who called the shots in his last ill-fated mission.

On the trail of this operative, Cole and his new allies will discover the dark heart of our surveillance culture, with connections to intelligence, to the military, and to the unchecked private contractors who stand to profit richly from the advancing technology . . . technology not just for use “over there,” but for right here, right now.