Under the dictate of a kinder, more open CIA, twenty-year veteran agent Jack McDuff has been grounded to a desk in the Miami station for the past year. However, after several agents have been killed in Europe by an unknown professional assassin, an old colleague contacts Jack, asking him to go to Rome and investigate on a rogue mission unsanctioned by the CIA. Out of loyalty to the slain agents and eager to head back into the field, Jack accepts, unaware that he will soon be targeted by the assassin and become involved in uncovering a conspiracy that extends from an Islamic terrorist organization in the Mideast, a drug cartel operation in Latin America and deep into the center of the CIA offices in Langley itself. In this little spy thriller, the author has crafted a very complex plot within 156 quick and mostly well-edited chapters, which should impress readers of this genre. However, the suspense is light as the main mystery is solved early and the reader is well aware that Jack, our hero with very loyal connections, quickly gets and maintains a step ahead of the villains, eventually handling this unsanctioned mission with superior intel and a few "deus ex machina" resolutions. ( )