Baghdad falls . . . and armed men are seen looting the city zoo.Amid a hail of bullets, a concealed underground lab isransacked—and something horrific is set loose upon the world.Seven years later, Louisiana state veterinarian Lorna Polk investigatesan abandoned shipwrecked fishing trawler carrying exoticcaged animals, part of a black market smuggling ring. But there issomething disturbingly wrong with these beasts—each an unsettlingmutation of the natural order, all sharing one uncanny trait:incredibly heightened intelligence.Joining forces with U.S. Border patrol agent Jack Menard—a manwho shares with her a dark and bloody past—Lorna sets out touncover the truth about this strange cargo and the terrorist threatit poses. Because a beast escaped the shipwreck and is runningamok—and what is about to be born upon the altar of Eden couldthreaten not only the future of the world but the very foundation ofwhat it means to be human.