Cade poses as a special ops agent to infiltrate an army base running the highly coveted "Red Flag Competition". A quatrain has led him and Eddie to believe that one of the contenders may be an alien hoping to win and insinuate himself into a high military or government position. Once he is there he studies the interactions between the other four contenders to try to determine which one might be an alien. This only results in angering the commander in charge, who feels that Cade is not taking the competition seriously enough. However, Cade realizes that the Gua plan might be far more insidious than he thought when he discovers a cloning facility hidden on the base. Have other winners of the competition been cloned and replaced? Just how far up the ladder of power does the influence of the Gua go?