"I think the world is lucky you don't all put your heads together and try to actually do something."

When an aging popular college professor told this to his favorite trio of students, little did he know the size of the ball he'd just kicked down the steps. Surely, these three college sophomores made for an unlikely band of world-changers.

• A pre-med student who'd been a three-sport high school jock.
• A pre-law poly-sci major known as the King of Snark.
• A disarmingly pretty artist whose every remark strikes like a Ninja star dipped in the blood of Jesus.

What could they possibly do to keep an American city from being burned down in a race riot?

Pulling on that thread unravels a web of criminal activity that reaches around the world, wending its way through the halls of government, a war-torn country in Central Asia, and a dance school in California's wine country. Before the final step is taken, things will get difficult, dangerous, and deeply personal.

Left-wing Democrats. Right-wing Republicans. Born-again Christians. Existentialists and atheists. Historians and hackers. Funkadelic and Tchaikovsky. Sharpton, Lincoln, and Thucydides.

Blood. Steam. Corruption. Disclosures. Debauchery. Triumph and tears. Romance in unexpected places.

Step carefully. It's a long way down.