Fandom

Maxine Kordell-former serial killer and compleat conservative-reads of pedophilia in the football program at CSU, a Virginia university. Max-whose fianc was killed by a pedophile-investigates, then draws the ire of alumni, students, administrators, and coaches, several of whom make the mistake of trying to intimidate her. Witnessing such unreasoning fandom first hand, Max begins questioning her own partisanship and Manichean nature. Joined by Mena Harling, they find a cover-up involving head football coach Josh Dadier, affectionately known as JoDad. After CSU's President is murdered, then Dadier, an assistant coach, and the athletic director suddenly die, it's clear something even more sinister is happening at CSU. At the same time, Max is approached by the RNC as a possible GOP candidate for one of Virginia's U.S. Senate seats. But when she attempts to investigate CSU further, she's asked to stop by a White House political strategist, then aided by White House liaison Julie Hartz, who, unknown to Max, is The Tracer, and has her own agenda for ending the pedophilia. Probing further, Max discovers an international ring of sexual abusers, The Unity, led by Hulitop, and a criminal gang called GAG. Aided by Mena, Willi Mayers, and Haley, she begins rooting them out. But The Unity has loyalists everywhere-university campuses, Hollywood studios, the Olympics, religious organizations, and the U.S. Congress. And GAG fears Max will expose their activities, also making her a target. Meanwhile, BURN, a group that eliminates up and coming conservatives, had earlier decided Max should be watched, and assigned an assassin to court her. But BURN's leader, The Rector, has a personal reason for wanting Max dead. In confrontations in Los Angeles, on a private Caribbean island, and in Virginia, Max and her friends must face the assassins Cike, Logistique, Cum Sicario Disputabo, and Ubiytsa. As they do, Max must come to grips with truths that threaten her already shaky worldview. Later, when matters seem settled, Max learns a Pennsylvania Catholic bishop has covered up pedophilia for years, and a close friend was victimized. So Max decides to make a frightening bloody statement, then meets with Pope John Paul II, to learn to what extent he will address Church sexual abuse in the future. As endgames play out, and her core beliefs are challenged, Max, in a Catholic cemetery, at the gravesites of her fianc and high school friend, must decide who and what she truly is.