In his final hours in the Oval Office, the outgoing President grants a full pardon to Joel Backman, a notorious Washington power broker who has spent the last six years in a federal prison.

Unknown to an outraged public, the pardon was the CIA's idea. They claim that Backman may have obtained secrets that would compromise American satellite surveillance.

Smuggled out of the country in a military cargo plane, Backman is given a new identity and a new home in Italy. He thinks he's out. But the CIA will soon leak his whereabouts to the Israelis, the Russians, the Chinese and the Saudis, and then sit back and watch.

The question is not whether Backman will survive – there's no chance of that. The question the CIA needs answered is: who will kill him?