The Patriots Club, a secret group of hardcore businessmen, has been in existence since it was first set up by George Washington in the days of the Revolutionary War. By 2004 it has acquired Jefferson Partners, a large and secretive private equity firm raising money from financial funds and private wealth to buy companies concentrated in the defense industry. William Blaine appears to be just another of Jefferson's right-wing capitalists but he conceals a personal mission. Twenty years ago his mother, a radical left-wing lawyer, uncovered evidence that Jefferson was helping the US government put together a global surveillance net capable of watching the lives of not just America, but the populations of the greater Western powers. After she and her cohorts bombed the building where the top-secret listening devices were being manufactured, she was forced to abandon her son and go on the run. Now Blaine's goal is to discover what became of Jefferson's sabotaged plan, codename: Cerberus...