In this future adventure, Gardai inspector Declan McGuinness leads a team that includes an Ethiopian inspector and a very sophisticated robot. The body of Daryl McGivern, the retired and eccentric CEO of an Irish American robotics company, is missing. The mystery of his whereabouts opens the door to the disappearance and apparent theft of hundreds of soldier robots. These robots, called soljabots, are internationally banned as weapons of war but, in a softer version, are being used as donations and "toy soldiers" in a war game. The war game was invented by McGivern, who was also one of the directors at Harp Society, a philanthropic organization. Harp has other directors who--along with a mysterious naval officer, Captain Jack Phang, a veteran of the South China Sea War--have different designs on the robots. Phang does not appear to be on anyone's database but emerges as an international person of interest and eventually a prime suspect in a larger mystery.