After graduating Annapolis, Howell served in the United States Navy for more than two decades, deploying to every numbered fleet and operating with more than sixty nations. On leaving active duty, he endured law school and entered private practice. Howell engaged in complex federal court litigation and intellectual property law before joining Blackwater as a senior vice president and its general counsel. Then things got interesting.
What starts as a routine job babysitting a minor bureaucrat at a Moscow conference quickly becomes much more, a complex scheme to trade arms for secrets. All the while, a growing cast of shady characters are looking to double-cross each other and steal the prize for themselves. Everything is leading to a bloody standoff in the desert, and they can’t all win.
For FBI Agent Samantha Calvert, this isn't just another case. In fact, it isn't her case at all. Her brother is missing in Afghanistan. So when the Bureau says she's "too close to the matter" and "not objective," Sam reluctantly decides to ask for help from the last place she'd ever choose: A burned spy named Gault.
For a burned spy named Gault, a pile of money and a new face don't hide the fact that his second life is pretty empty. But when a deadly terrorist murders his best friend, everything changes. Now, Gault wants blood for blood. Tracking the killer from the oil rocks of Azerbaijan through the old cities of Europe and into the rugged Alps, nothing is going to stand in his way.
As FBI counterterrorism specialist Sam Calvert works a new case, the special agent realizes that the investigation's prime suspect may be the only one who can stop a deadly new attack in time.
The question is: Will a man betrayed by his own government still serve those who seek to destroy him?