Millions of spiders are poised to take over the Earth, and it's become obvious that they work as one. Among the government, there is dissent: do we try to kill all of the spiders, or do we gamble on Professor Guyer's theory that we need to kill only the queens? President Stephanie Pilgrim has gone as far as she can: more than two dozen American cities hit with tactical nukes, the country torn asunder. She believes in Professor Guyer... but Ben Broussard and the military men who follow him don't. What's more dangerous, the spiders or ourselves?
