Fountain of Youth, or Valley of Death? While eating his supper of microwave popcorn, PhD student-genius Salinger Jacobs is grabbed from his apartment in California, stuck on a C-130 military plane, and sent to the Sahara Desert to witness the reality of the ZOO for himself. With the life expectancy of untrained scientists working inside the ZOO measured in hours, he has a lot to learn. Fast. First order of business? How do you shoot a gun, and just how much is that plant worth? The government needs the best of the best military and scientific minds working out how to pull the secrets from the ZOO, while keeping the deadly fauna and flora in check. There is one major problem, Salinger doesn't even have a PhD. If he can stay alive long enough, he might be able to afford something besides packaged microwave popcorn to eat. That is a big if.