Along the border in Texas, a deadly firefight claims the lives of two Border Patrol agents. On a highway in suburban Virginia, a bomb blast targets the director of the CIA. From the halls of power in D.C., secrets reach out, signing the death warrants of those who uncover them.

For CIA paramilitary Harry Nichols, deceit has become a way of life. Fifteen years in the Clandestine Service have left him weary, recovering from a devastating betrayal. Little does he know the betrayals have only begun.

With CIA Director David Lay missing and presumed dead, Nichols finds himself tasked with protecting Lay's estranged daughter and hunted by an ex-Spetsnaz kill team. His only mission is to keep her safe. Her only desire is to find the man who ordered her father's murder. For him, she becomes the only motivation to leave behind the life of violence he's known, but only his talent for violence can save them now. Pursued by an unknown enemy, their danger will draw them together, even as her quest for truth plunges them both into the abyss.

But as their world turns upside down, as a Pakistani terrorist prepares to attack an American city, even as everything once sure turns to quicksand, one thing becomes breathtakingly clear.

All that stands between them and the truth is an American president willing to bury his secrets one enemy at a time.