Six years have passed since Jamie Waterman took charge of a foundering expedition and courageously led its surviving members on a dangerous trek to Mars's Valles Marineris- and to, perhaps, the greatest scientific discovery in the history of humankind: fragile, lichenlike organisms growing just beneath the planet's rocky surface; extraterrestrial life in its most basic form. But things have soured for Waterman back in Earth's rich atmosphere since the monumental breakthrough that brought him fame and-for a time-happiness. And the two halves of Jamie's heart-native mystic and rational scientist-have slipped further and further out of balance.
Now a second Martian expedition has been announced--one motivated purely by its profitable potential-and Jamie Waterman's wounded soul is beckoning him back to the eerie, unforgiving landscape whose towering cliffs and sere natural beauty remind him so strongly of Navajo lands. As commander of the new team, he will have to contend with a bitter and destructive rivalry, a disturbing new emotional attraction-and with the deadly, incomprehensible "accidents" that appear to be sabotage-all of which could doom the mission to failure.
But Waterman knows he must not fail-for much more is at stake than his personal redemption and the safety of his crew. For there are still great secrets to be uncovered on this cruel and enigmatic world-not the least being something he glimpsed in the far distance during his first Martian excursion: an improbable structure perched high in the planet's carmine cliffs.