Geologist Philip Mercer rides an elevater 2000 feet into the earth at the Leister Deep Mine in Minnesota. There to visit Abraham Jacobs, a friend who is leading a research team studying climate change. Mercer is stunned to hear automatic gunfire- Abe Jacobs and his team have been brutally attacked, and Mercer seeks answers and revenge. Staying one step ahead of a team of assassins, Merce follows Jacobs trail to Afghanistan and a remote island in the Pacific. At stake is a scientific discovery that could irrevocably alter the planet, centered on a cache of rare crystals called lightning stones- rumored to have been aboard Amelia Earhart's plane when it vanished in 1937.