The run up to the first incumbent-free presidential primary of the century has just begun, and the cultural temperature in America is already being dubbed by the media as a ‘raging dumpster inferno’. Fanning the flames is renowned security researcher turned hacktivist August Fischer, whose groundbreaking bipartisan leak of top candidates’ private phone data and the candid inflammatory remarks within has incited at least two domestic terror attacks and deadly mass rioting across the nation. The fallout is so severe that two leading candidates, in an effort to distance themselves from the meltdown, have chosen to drop out of their respective parties’ races and run as independents. With the Iowa Caucus still months away and the major parties in splinters, the country now floats precariously towards uncharted waters as dark clouds of palpable dread gather from above.

But things are not what they seem. Doffy has spotted that a leaked message which directly inspired one of the attacks was actually a plant, Barney has discovered that both terrorists had claimed to be abducted by aliens in ways eerily similar to an old and obscure Bengali video, and Scumlord has traced the theft of his exclusive spyware to a shell company dabbling in campaign advertising. As they each dig deeper they converge on a common thread: No Bounds News, a niche alt-right conspiracy theory website which not only has been claiming quotes from the leak be planted and mysteriously has intimate knowledge of the alien abduction only privy to the terrorist’s partner, but is owned by the very company Scumlord believes to have stolen his malware. Although divided in motive they join forces to investigate the site further, unwittingly setting them off on a deadly game of cat and mouse with the most depraved and powerful people imaginable.