Melissa O'Brien is a plain-looking space genius who earned a PhD from Stanford at twenty-one and worked at the National Reconnaissance Office for ten years in a secure vault amid the nation's secrets. She accepts a job working for the Senate Intelligence Committee only to learn how unprepared she is for life on Capitol Hill where she suffers an abusive supervisor and an envious fellow staffer who wants her job and hopes to sabotage her. She's befriended by Hannah, a raven-haired beautiful staffer with a dark past. And Jake, a handsome young man who goes from a House staff job to a defense contractor, comes into her life. This is Melissa's story. But it opens in Paris where a jet-lagged young man is picked up at gun point and interrogated by an older man asking, "What happened to the girl?" Explore the life of a Senate staffer, as told by a Capitol Hill veteran, in this fast paced story of friendship, romance, and intrigue.