Following evidence found in Idol Pursuits, the group flies to Atlanta in pursuit of JF8. Provided with passports by the Israelis, they still have problems with little things like Customs and Airport Security, though.
Once in Atlanta, they have great difficulties finding JF8 until Holmes contacts G.E., a member of the French Resistance, trying to keep an eye on JF8 and hoping not to alarm him.
Time passes and it becomes clear that JF8 has been spooked and is not coming back. Sneaking into JF8's apartment, they learn enough to figure out that he's very interested in the murder of a local family.
Proceeding to the crime scene, they find it still sealed off by the police. Sneaking in, they find some evidence pointing at the Magnolia Research Park, but are attacked by ninjas. Trying to flee the scene, they are caught up to by the ninjas, and Holmes invokes a reality storm on the ninja leader, Osato, winning the contest. Shortly thereafter, though, most of the party is taken into custody by the police.
After being released from custody, they go to Magnolia Research Park, where they are met by a young monk named Fujiwara who joins them. He has been investigating his own trail of events which have led him here separately.
The group learns a number of things by simply asking around and keeping their eyes open, pointing them at one particular building. Breaking into that building after dark, they are harassed by more ninjas until they find Osato setting off a self-destruct device. Before the device goes off, they are able to find a number of things: A lot of cash, the plans to a primitive nuclear bomb, and the directions to a location where the cash and bombs will be exchanged for some "tiles".
Buying a used van, the group heads for the site, which happens to be in the Living Land. Along the way, they crash the van in a fight with some gospog and burn a gospog field being planted in Indianapolis, but eventually they find a Nile Empire dig site. Posing as the Nippon businessmen, they make a false trade (The bomb plans have been sabotaged, and the cash mostly replaced by fakes) but the party is crashed by skycycles carrying samurai-like enforcers. This leads to a merry romp through the jungle, led by one Captain Achmedi.
Escaping and translating the 'tiles' (which seem to be part of some sort of map), the group figures out they need to go to Nepal, which they are able to do thanks to some mysteriously provided tickets. In Nepal, they are suddenly caught up to by the forces of The Insidious Wu Han and are trapped in the very cave they have been seeking.
JF8 is lying in ambush for them in the cave, and is killed after a vicious fight. Searching the body, GE discovers an odd chip which JF8 had loaded and takes it. With Wu Han still unable to get in the cave, the group uses the tiles to learn that they are supposed to go to Thailand next as part of summoning some sort of prophecied help. They fight their way out of the cave, smashing Wu Han's forces and killing Captain Achmedi, but Wu Han escapes uninjured.
Discovering that Wu Han had tracked them to this area by means of a substance on the tiles, the group scrapes it off and buries the tiles. The substance thus scraped off is placed on a cargo ship heading for Japan.