The bombs are in place, ready to destroy the super-computers at the Department of Information Technology. Inside, the members of the Syndrome, the anti-technology group that planted the bombs, lay dead or dying. All of them, that is, except Cliff Unger, or as he calls himself now, Zig Fowler. Unger has his finger on the detonator as he negotiates with Pete Yastremski, the head of the department. As the two men talk and FBI agents prepare to storm the building, we move back in time, through the hours, days and years leading up to the attack.