The CIA has embraced mathemagics, but only as a new way of doing the same old thing: Planting bugs. Thalia and the rest of the Center for Applied Topology's research fellows have been dispatched across Europe with the mission of attending embassy parties, and teleporting back in later to plant bugs. Unfortunately, academics are the worst possible variable in the equations of diplomats and spies. The resulting hijinks, escapades, and misunderstandings end up with Thalia on one side of a Central Asian revolution, and her husband, case officer Brad Lensky, on the other... And if they can't figure out a solution, the entire country may go under water!