Vittoria and her father had created antimatter in a CERN lab. This was doubly important to her father because he was a priest, and the discovery promised to give humanity access to the secrets of creation. However, it is also a great threat because antimatter explodes when it comes into contact with normal matter. This becomes a pressing issue when they learn that their biggest sample has been stolen, and the battery that generates the magnetic field (and keeps the antimatter stable) has only a twenty-four-hour life span.