Corgan, hero of the Virtual War, has been living a blissful, if placid, life on the Isles of Hiva, his reward for winning the War with Sharla and Brig. But what he doesn't know is that Brig died soon after the War, and yet is not truly gone. Sharla had saved some of Brig's DNA and has created clone-twins with it. Corgan's world is disrupted when Sharla brings one of the clone-twins, Seabrig, to him to raise on the island, while she keeps the other, Brigand, with her in the Domed City.
However, when circumstances force Sharla to bring Brigand to the island, they find that while the boys might look identical, their temperaments are not. And, as a result of the cloning process, both boys are growing at an astonishing rate. This leaves Corgan alone with an increasingly dangerous and unstable Brigand -- who is looking to get rid of Corgan once and for all!