They call it "Wet Eye": a biological weapon that literally eats out the eyes of its victims. Now, deep within the belly of the U.S. military establishment, one small silver canister of Wet Eye is missing-lost because a career pencil-pusher has cut a million-dollar deal and signed it in blood.

For David Stafford, a Defense Department investigator, finding the missing canister means ripping through layers of cover-ups, bureaucracy, and one man's murderous determination to sell Wet Eye to an international arms dealer. But the military would rather silence Stafford than admit to a...