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?