When Secret Intelligence Service deniable operator Nick Stone aborts an officially sanctioned assassination attempt at the Houses of Parliament, having realised who the target is, he is given a chilling ultimatum by his bosses: fly to Panama and finish the job, or Kelly, the eleven-year-old orphan in his guardianship, will be killed.
At any other stage of his life, the task would have been run of the mill for a man of Stone's skills and experience. But Stone is on the edge, struggling to pick up the pieces of his shattered life, trying to come to terms with a heartrending decision he has had to make about Kelly's future. By the time he arrives in Panama, he is close to breaking point.
In the sweltering jungle of Central America, Stone prepares to carry out his orders, aided by Aaron and Carrie, two American eco-scientists in the pay of the CIA. But as he soon discovers, nothing in Panama is quite what it seems, and it's not long before he finds himself the centre of a lethal conspiracy involving Colombian guerrillas, the US government and Chinese big business.
At stake are hundreds of innocent lives . . .
Only Stone can stop the killing and retrieve the West's interest, but first there is a critically injured friend to rescue, and miles of dense rainforest to navigate. In the explosive denouement at the Panama Canal, with everyone's true colours ultimately revealed, Nick Stone is forced to make the toughest decision of his life.
