Archeology professor Jedediah Coxswain has been missing since discovering a technologically advanced instrument attached to the remains of a Neanderthal man, dubbed "Abel" by the dig team. Archeologists are baffled by the artifact. But Gordon Thrym, a billionaire Wall Street financier knows exactly what it is, and he will stop at nothing to possess the one device he must have to subjugate Earth's civilizations. Again.