The plot focuses on a nuclear scare, the federal reaction, and Gideon's attempts to unravel the mystery.

On their way to Chalker's writers workshop in California, the plane Fordyce is flying suffers a malfunction in both engines, forcing them to crashland.

Fordyce, convinced that Bill Novak—the Los Alamos Security Director—is corrupt, assists Gideon in breaking into Simon's computer as the two of them drive to DC.

They discover that Blaine's true plan is to steal a vial of smallpox, with most of the security busy searching for an imaginary bomb.

[4] Publishers Weekly panned Gideon's Corpse, saying that it fell "well short of the authors’ usual high standard".