"I'll cut right to the chase," the inspector said. "Do you know what Dr. Conner wrote in his manuscript that would cause someone to kill to silence him?" Melina didn't answer at first. She looked down at her legs and plucked at a sequin on her skirt, which had the effect of moving the fabric aside even more, revealing more leg. The inspector didn't complain. He waited for her answer with the patience of Job. Melina seemed fascinated by the sequins on her dress, plucking at them casually. Each pluck drew aside more fabric. Inch by inch, some sort of truth was about to be revealed. "One more pluck and you're under arrest." "For murder, Inspector?" "For indecent exposure, Miss Marks." Seven strangers survive their sightseeing blimp going down during its maiden tour of the Sahara Desert's Tanezrouft Basin, a desolated wasteland know, without exaggeration, as "The Land of Terror." Following months of fruitless searching and mounting world-wide attention over their mysterious fate, rescue had finally come for the seven "terrornauts," who now gather for a reunion to celebrate escape from death ... then Death strikes ... and they discover the killer must be "one of us."