Gordon Campbell, Prof. Phineas Paulson, and Trish Davidson ride out to the abandoned house of Major Englebart to find his house trashed; notes everywhere. While in the house they hear noises, only to find Gordon's car disabled and no one in sight. They leave, finding several cars left on the roadway, and get a ride back to town.
While at the Peking restaurant, Gordon and Trish meet Frank Black, a disillusioned clergyman dressed as a biker who overhears their conversation and introduces himself. CW2 Valentino at the bar gets in a fight with four bikers and is stabbed. Frank helps him while Gordon pulls his gun to stop the fight. While the bikers leave Dean "Fallen Angel" Miller, the failed WWF wrestler, wanders in. Dean attempts to pick up on Trish, who snubs him, to find solace in the arms of one of the waitresses from the Peking.
With the winter storm still pummeling Twin Falls, the group hears shots in the distance; they go to investigate and find the police are in a shootout with bikers at a liquor store. Valentino gets shot after shooting one biker while Dean grapples and takes down another. Gordon calls the police on the squad car radio: the prisoner is taken in and Valentino is brought to the hospital.
Dean, Trish, and Frank go visit Valentino in the hospital while Gordon hitches a ride with Blayse towing out to his truck on Hwy 30 by Major Englebarts home. They find the truck and while Adrian Blayse is making the hook ups, Gordon sees a figure approaching and discerning it is not breathing: shoots it. They leave quickly and tow Gordon's truck to the shop to get fixed.
The weather begins to clear; I-84 is open to Boise and east to Salt Lake City while Hwy 93 has not yet been plowed or opened.
With Valentino still in the hospital and Gordon's truck still missing a windshield, Gordon tells Frank and Trish about his zombie encounter and shows them some of the papers he found on the zombie. Frank recognizes the writing and knows it to be the sigil of the "Knights of Death," a satanist group of bikers who are the strong-arm of the Temple of Set.
The party splits up today; Valentino talking to the police and getting his truck out of impound while Gordon gets his Chevy Blazer from the repair shop. Valentino notices a report stating a Mr. Thomas Babington, a Defense Contractor with CIR (Comprehensive Investigation and Readiness) went to work at Saylor Creek Air Force Monitoring Station according to his wife and never returned home.
They go to the library and look at microfiche for newspaper articles while Gordon and Frank go to the cemetary looking for any problems. There Frank notices a symbol of the Death Knights on a piece of paper in the office, they take the paper and see it is a bill of lading for Saylor Creek Air Force Monitoring Station. The search for information in the library yields a history of industrial accidents while local unions complained about their work being cut.
Trish and Dean ride out to Major Englebart's farm and look around where the supposed zombie had been shot but find nothing.
Valentino recognizes some of the parts on the list Gordon and Frank lifted from the cemetary office as mini gun parts and a lot of computer processing and storage.
Gordon talks to Ms. Eugenia C. Scott, the sister inlaw of Adrian Blayse the tow truck driver, at the Groceries and Things store. She tells him things about the town and the base. Connie Mack reported her husband, Ros Mack, missing three months ago to both the Twin Falls police as well as the Idaho State Police and no trace of him yet. Frank Ochberg, the only psychiatrist in town, has experienced a surge of new patients with a medly of maladies. And author Robert Lovato, who writes popular fiction as well as conspiracy books, was in town touting his new book on radionics, out of body experiences, Hindu Eckankar, and the disappearing money trail of government grants leading to Saylor Creek. Mr. Lovato has not been seen in the past few weeks though his luggage is still waiting for him at the Best Western.
After discussing seeing a large black truck with strange writings and a skull on the side; Eugenia tells Gordon about Salmon Reservoir near Meteor and the Indian massacre there 114 years ago tomorrow. She thinks the truck may be headed up there.
Gordon, Valentino, Frank, and Dean meet in the lobby of the Best Western and discover Trish had left town without telling anyone. They head down Hwy 93 and stop in Rogerson for fuel and some breakfast. There they have a chance encounter with Malcom Harold, an FBI agen out of Salt Lake City.
Soon after Agent Harold departs Dr. Elisha Derring stops at the convenience store with her '95 Camaro acting up. She confides in Dean that she is a bit fearful of a biker who had been following her down from Twin Falls. A minivan full of teenagers stops for munchies and a bathroom break. Elisha decides to go with the rest of the party after her car refuses to start. They head for the reservoir on North Rd and soon find the minivan smashed and smoking in the road with three dead teenagers, two still breathing, and bloody tracks in the snow where one went missing. While Gordon and Dean follow the tracks for a bit down the slope: the rest help Elisha get the surviving girl, Jessie, and boy, Archie, into the back of Valentino's truck. Calling back the others; they return to the Twin Falls hospital and drop off Archie as Jessie is lightly wounded and worried about her missing friend, Amanda.
The group takes Valentino's truck, and Frank on his motorcycle, and roll back to the crash site and talk with the Idaho State police there on site. After leaving the police in the growing dark, they check firs the east side then west side of the lake. They find a zombie biker guarding the unpaved road town to the reservoir, kill it, and drive down to the water to get in a fire fight with the cultists and zombies by the black semi trailer truck where it is evident the girl Amanda had just been sacrificed. During the gun fight the truck escapes into an obscuring mist leaving behind a sprinkling of bodies while Gordon, Frank, Elisha, Dean, and Valentino are all wounded. Gordon grabs a saddle bag off of one of the bikes while the rest get into the truck. Dr. Elisha Derring rides in the back doing her best to keep the two seriously wounded of the party, Dean and Valentino, alive. They once more ride back to the Twin Falls hospital where Elisha is given permission to assist with the surgery on Valentino.
Gordon looks through the saddlebags from the biker, finds newspaper articles on the Knights of Death, the Aetherius Society, Astral Travel, and building a “Spiritual Energy Radiator.” Jessie goes to the library and does some research with Gordon on the things they find in the saddlebags. Jessie fixes the computer, finds a modem number into a Saylor Air Station logistics computer. Find they ordered lots of strange electronic devices, lots of high capacity transformers, 124 copies of Shirley MacLaine's book, "Dancing in the Light," and oddly 5,000 square feet of deep sea fishing nets.
Elisha, helping out in the Twin Falls ER, treats a patient named Bruce Berman who was stabbed by his wife over passing the butter during dinner and he believes she is possessed. Digging a bit into the hospital records she finds the case of Joshua Norman, a gate guard at Saylor Creek Air Station who came into the ER stating he was suffering from radiation exposure but never returned for any follow up appointments. She calls her father, Rear Admiral Derring working at the Pentagon, and mentions she is near Saylor Creek Air Station: he warns her to leave as quickly as possible and the line goes dead.
Jessie visits the Electricians Union shope to talk to some of the members playing dominos and drinking beer. Even though she pulls a gun at one moment they refuse to tell her anything. She leaves only to be followed up by Gordon, Elisha, and Dean trying to strongarm them for information. Once again weapons are pulled and Gordon and Dean beat several of the electricians when they feel the replies to their questions are inadequate. Gordon shoots one, Brian Hartley in the leg while another, Dan Wilens, blocks the party so his friend can escape out of the back and summon the police. Elisha works to stop the bleeding, sirens in the distance. The party flees down the alleyway. Unfortunately Brian Hartley dies before reaching the hospital.
Gordon, Dean, and Elisha tell the others the all need to leave Twin Falls immediately and load into Gordon's truck. Valentino and Jessie follow in Valentino's shot up truck while Frank rides his motorcycle. Several miles down the road, in Glenn's Ferry, Valentino's truck overheats. Accompanied by Frank they pull over in the Chevron off of exit 121. They notice the large number of police in the area and discover there is a manhunt for whomever was responsible for the killing of several teenagers in the nearby Three Island State Park. They get a room at the Redford motel for the night.
FBI agent Malcom Harold in Twin Falls following the lead on the van and discovers Jessie left with the others west. He puts out an APB on them and heads west after getting a report Valentino's truck was found in nearby Glenn's Ferry.
1:30 am: Agent Harold arrives in Glenn's Ferry and meets police officers in the parking lot of the motel. They take Valentino, Frank, and Jessie into custody. He spends the early morning hours questioning them about the events in Twin Falls. He tells them of his interest in the occult, asks for their help, and gets them released from jail.
Valentino has his truck repaired while Jessie, using money supplied by Malcom Harold, buys the necessary pieces to build a Geiger counter and a phreak box. They also acquire rooms down the street at the Tolmas Bed and Breakfast. After the counter is built Malcom and Jessie go down to the morgue and discover the bodies of the dead teens are very radioactive. Malcom tells the sheriff and mortician.
Frank checks out the local biker hangout and notices one, "Flipper," has the Death Knight "4-11" badge on his jacket. He finishes his drink and goes to inform the rest of the group. Valentino meanwhile is busy on the phone checking on flights and charters at the local airport and is put in touch with Naomi Klein, owner of Glenn Ferry Flight Services Helicopter and Charter Service.
Malcom goes down to the crime scene by the park and finds traces of radiation where the bodies were found. In doing so he attracts the attention of CNN correspondent, Carol Crawford, and her camera crew. Seeing he can do nothing under scrutiny, Malcom leaves the park and has lunch at the Green Grate cafe where is he joined by Carol Crawford. After shaking off CNN, Malcom returns to the Bed and Breakfast where he meets with the rest of the party and they compare notes for the evening.
2am: The party is attacked in their rooms by the reanimated remains of Ed, Bertha, and Jimmy Tolmas, the family that owned Tolmas Bed and Breakfast. They see someone fleeing the scene who gets hit by a car. Malcom stays to talk to the police while the rest of the party leaves for the airport. While Malcom is talking to the police the party is caught by the local night watchman who calls the police. Frank tells him a line about two guys and a girl looking for a nice secluded spot and the watchman surprisingly buys it. Malcom and the police find the woman in the car dead; and whomever she hit gone. He meets the rest of the party at a gas station and then leave Glenn's Ferry west nine miles down to Hammett where they get rooms at the Metcalf Motel for some much needed rest.