In his final hours in office the outgoing President grants a controversial pardon to Joel Backman, a notorious power broker who has spent the last 6 years in a federal prison. What nobody knows is that the President issues the pardon only after enormous pressure from the CIA. It seems that Backman, in his power broker heyday, may have obtained secrets that compromise the world's most sophisticated satellite surveillance system. He is smuggled out of the country, given a new identity and a new home in Italy. Eventually the CIA will leak his whereabouts and sit back and watch. The question is not if he will survive - they want to know who will kill him. Also available in hardback. Collection only.