In the aftermath of World War Three, the most famous face in the world belongs to a nine year old girl. Maya Oman is the daughter of the woman who controls what's left of civilization, the CEO of Ascendant Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Her smile is as ubiquitous as air, selling everything from vital medicine to vanity drugs with risky side effects. Lifelike android clones reside in over a dozen homes, shielding her from the violent resentment of a population straining under her mother's boot heel. Ascendant's power comes from Xenodril, a drug capable of reversing the effects of Fade, a disease some claim came from aliens or from the governments that predate the war. Only Ascendant sells it, and at a price only Citizens can afford. The rest are left to die. Maya's earliest memories are of living alone in a penthouse apartment, desperate for the attention of a mother who never visits. Forbidden to go out except to record advertising video, her only friend has been the 'net. When she is taken for ransom by a group of mercenaries with nothing left to lose, she discovers her life may not be what she thought it was—or wants.

Two weeks after Maya tried to save the world, little has changed. Little, except for a nine-year-old’s building fear that her ex-mother’s revenge waits around every corner. When her face appeared on every still-working video monitor along the Eastern Seaboard, streaming her plea and her evidence all over the planet, she thought they’d won. Alas, her fairy tale dream died. The Authority didn’t become noble overnight. Her ex-mother didn’t face punishment for her crimes. The lack of any retribution, or even any effort on the part of the Brigade to hide her, only fans the flames of her worry. To make matters worse, her best friend Sarah is hiding a painful secret. Maya’s fears come to fruition in the middle of the night. In a hail of gunfire, she and Sarah flee into the dangerous streets of the Habitation District, rife with dosers, street gangs, corrupt Authority officers, chased by an unknown enemy worse than Ascendant. They don’t want to kidnap her―they want her dead.

Nine-year-old Maya dreads living in the Habitation District with her new family. It’s not the lack of video games or her shabby clothes, or even wondering if she’ll eat from day to day—it’s the giant target on her back. Her ex-mother’s offer of a truce scares her more than any threat the woman could have made. Both her new parents are former Special Operations soldiers, but even that provides little sense of safety. Barely a week goes by without an abduction attempt over her connection to Ascendant Pharmaceuticals. After one such random attack, Maya discovers information that leads the Brigade to come up with a risky plan: use her unique combination of small size and large brain in an operation that could end the Ascendant threat for good. Hoping to peel the target off her back, Maya accepts the mission. Her Brigade friends assure her it’s completely safe. Freakishly intelligent kids can do many things well, but commando raids aren’t on the list. Her idealism leads to real bullets flying, crushing her hopes to live like a normal child. She’ll be happy to live at all.