IT STARTED THE WAY A SPY STORY SHOULD START.
ON A MISTY NIGHT IN PHUKET.
IN A LITTLE BAR.
Jack Shepherd was a politically connected lawyer until he traded the fierce intrigues of Washington for the quiet life of a college professor in Thailand. Everything was going pretty well for him there, too, at least it was until the day he walked into a little bar on the jet-set island of Phuket and found the world's most famous fugitive waiting for him.
Plato Karsarkis was an international celebrity straight out of Vanity Fair, but then a New York grand jury indicted him for smuggling Iraqi oil and charged him with racketeering and money laundering. There's also the matter of a woman he may or may not have murdered to cover it up. When Karsarkis suddenly fled the United States and disappeared, the world's media whipped itself into a frenzy searching for him.
Karsarkis is waiting for Shepherd in that Phuket bar because he wants to hire him. He figures a presidential pardon would be his ticket back to America, and he thinks Shepherd's connections to the White House can get it for him.
But the United States Marshals are in Phuket, too, and they want Shepherd's help as well. The marshals ask Shepherd to set a trap for Karsarkis so they can kidnap him and drag him back to New York.
All Shepherd wants is for them all to go away and leave him alone.
At least he does until he discovers a chilling secret. The marshals aren't really in Phuket to arrest Plato Karsarkis.
They're there to kill him.
"THE GRITTY AND TAUT 'KILLING PLATO' IS 100% UNADULTERATED ATTITUDE" – The Singapore Straits Times