Paul Janson is a retired operative, now a highly sought-after and extremely selective security specialist. The spy game ended up costing him everything that was most important to him and it would take a lot to lure him back into it. Unfortunately, the one person to whom Janson's personal debt is so large that he could require anything of Janson is calling in his marker. Peter Novak, the legendary Hungarian immigrant and head of the Liberty Foundation, has been kidnapped and faces execution at the hands of terrorist extremists. It is up to Janson to rescue him before Novak is murdered. Janson puts together a top team immediately and manages the nearly impossible task of extricating Novak, but something goes horribly wrong - something that indicates that his operation has been compromised from the start - and only Janson himself survives. Now the major intelligence services think that Janson was responsible for Novak's death and are sending their finest operatives after him . . .