Following a message from his congressional colleague Mark Simonson, John and Kim are drawn to Meridian, Mississippi, where the struggle for voting rights is clouded by the disappearance of three civil rights workers. As Kim senses the Hive's presence in the town, news that Loengard is in Mississippi prompts Bach to act. Then, after being contacted by Etta Mae Tillman, John and Kim are led to where Simonson is hiding after escaping the deadly fate of his three missing civil rights co-workers.

Following the deaths of both President Kennedy and his assassin, Bach realizes that the alien hive has planted a spy inside Majestic - and all the evidence points to his trusted aide, Jim Steele. However, Steele escapes into the Majestic complex after a failed attempt to eject the alien ganglion from his body. Meanwhile, Loengard and Sayers return to John's childhood home in California, where an uneasy reception from John's older brother Ray revives long-standing tensions between them.