One-legged Russian detective Rostnikov goes on the trail of a missing cosmonaut.

How high is your J Factor? Dr. David West, an ambitious young surgeon from Orlando, is the hero in this medical thriller set in future America. As one of the minions working for the corrupt International Organ Replacement Corporation, David knows that in order for a patient to receive a new, healthy organ, he or she must have a high Justification Factor--or J Factor, as the insiders call it. But when David accidentally violates one of the IORC's policies and a man dies for his mistake, the dutiful doctor joins attorney Janette Compton on a dangerous quest to crack the system.

During the final months of World War II, on an isolated hilltop in the deserts of New Mexico, top-level government scientists are at work on the Manhattan Project. When a security officer for the Project turns up dead under mysterious circumstances, army intelligence officer Michael Connolly arrives to investigate. Could the dead man have leaked valuable information that would jeopardize the Project?