Geologist Trace Brandon has traded mining in Washington State for the sunshine and warm waters of the Cayman Islands. For the past year, his only encounters with crooks have been social, and no one has tried to kill him. But a phone call from Cyrus "the Virus" McSweeny lures Trace into a dangerous new mining project. This time the quarry is West African alluvial diamonds: rare and extremely valuable...green diamonds. In the steamy backwater city of Monrovia, Trace and his partner, Will Coffee, team up with expat mining engineer Gordon Watson and an Idaho potato-farmer-turned-diamond-miner known as the "Mormon." Together, they will make an extraordinary find-what miners call a "First Water Stone." When rebels attempt a coup, Trace and his partners are caught up in violence and treachery that threaten to engulf them all...