When a 747 crashes over the Sunda Trench-the second plane to go down there in 20 years-the world dismisses it as a tragic coincidence, but in Chicago, a determined researcher uncovers a terrifying pattern. His search for answers pulls him into a secret war between eight ancient beings-once worshipped as gods and now walking among us-who are willing to kill to protect a terrible truth that has been locked away for the last 3,000 years.