Togusa and Tsunagi are racing after a fleeing suspect when a van suddenly slams into the suspect's car, killing the van driver instantly. As Togusa hooks into the man's cyberbrain, he sees residual images of a group of children and a masked figure who says, “I am a warrior.” Later, an autopsy yields a shocking revelation: the driver was killed not by the collision, but by a neurotoxin derived from the venom of the African black mamba. Section 9 needs answers, so Togusa and Tsunagi get sent halfway across the world to the Sahel Special Economic Zone. What mysteries await them in the “oasis of the Sahara”?