In his final hours in the Oval Office, the outgoing
President grants a controversial last-minute pardon to Joel
Backman, a notorious Washington power broker who has spent
the last six years hidden away in a federal prison. What no
one knows is that the President issues the pardon only
after receiving enormous pressure from the CIA. It seems
Backman, in his power broker heyday, may have obtained
secrets that compromise the world’s most sophisticated
satellite surveillance system.
Backman is quietly smuggled out of the country in a
military cargo plane, given a new name, a new identity, and
a new home in Italy. Eventually, after he has settled into
his new life, the CIA will leak his whereabouts to the
Israelis, the Russians, the Chinese, and the Saudis. Then
the CIA will do what it does best: sit back and watch. The
question is not whether Backman will survive—there is no
chance of that. The question the CIA needs answered is, who
will kill him?