During the 1999 Russian Russian presidential elections, the two leading candidates are Igor Komarov, a former Colonel of the KGB, and Nikolai Nikolayev, a retired General of the Russian Ground Forces. When a car bomb explodes outside one of Komarov’s pharmaceutical companies, and a virus is stolen from inside, an investigation by the Federal Security Service (Russia) ensues headed by FSB agents Sonia Astrova and Andrei Kasanov. Their investigation is obstructed by the Director of FSB, Anatoly Grishin .