HarperCollins
July 2011
On Sale: July 15, 2011
Featuring: Calculus; Steve Vail; Kate Bannon
496 pages ISBN: 0061827037 EAN: 9780061827037 Paperback Add to Wish List
Ex-FBI agent Steve Vail navigates a maze of hidden codes and
brain-teasing puzzles to stay hot on the trail of a band of
Russian spies in this breathtaking follow-up to his New York
Times bestselling debut, The Bricklayer
FBI-agent-turned-bricklayer Steve Vail once helped the FBI
solve a brilliant extortion plot. It was supposed to be a
one-and-done deal. But when he's in Washington, D.C., to see
Kate Bannon-an FBI assistant director-on what he thinks will
be a romantic New Year's Eve date, suddenly things get
complicated. The FBI has another unsolvable problem, and it
has Vail's name written all over it. A man known as
Calculus, an officer at the Russian embassy, has approached
the FBI claiming that he has a list of Americans who are
selling confidential information to the Russian SVR. In
exchange for the list, he is asking for a quarter of a
million dollars for each traitor the FBI apprehends. But
then Calculus informs the FBI that he has been swiftly
recalled to Moscow, and the Bureau suspects the worst: the
Russians have discovered what Calculus is up to, probably
have access to his list, and will be hunting the traitors to
kill them unless the FBI can find them first. The FBI
realizes that it has to keep the operation quiet. Once
again, Vail is the perfect man, along with Kate Bannon, who
would be anyone's first pick for help on an impossibly
dangerous case. But finding the traitors isn't going to be
easy. In fact, it's going to be downright deadly. And if the
Bricklayer survives, he will have to come up with a few
tricks of his own. Agent X is a heart-pounding thrill ride
with an authenticity only a writer who's an FBI veteran can
provide, and Steve Vail-a man Patricia Cornwell calls a "new
American hero"-is one of the smartest, toughest, and most
compelling new characters to come along in many years.