As the Collectors vie for dominance, Gina Lazarescu finds herself fleeing through the mountains. She is alone and wounded, but more determined than ever to find and protect the children in her care. She does not know that Cal Nichols still has life-shaking secrets yet to share. She knows only that she is headed for another confrontation with the Collectors, one that will lead from Romanian castles to the Pacific Northwest and eventually to the Haunt of Jackals, birthplace of Judas Iscariot in Israel's arid wastelands.