At a glittering party near the Capital, ex-CIA agent John Lock celebrates his sister Beth's birthday among the rich and powerful: lobbyists, congressmen, foreign dignitaries, business magnates, and even former KGB agents. Lock will think back on those guests incessantly during the days to come, struggling to recall each and every person present because, before daybreak, they will all be under suspicion for the brutal murder of Beth and her husband, Billy Grainger.Half a world away, a senior American executive is murdered execution-style by a single bullet to the back of his head. His corpse is found lying near the fields of an international gas consortium. A symbol? A warning?Built up steadily since the Cold War thawed, Grainger-Turgenev was thriving under the revitalized leadership of Billy Grainger. But after the murders, control shifts to Pyotr Turgenev, Billy's enigmatic Russian partner, and the involvement is revealed of Nguyen Tran, the mysterious Vietnamese whose interest in Grainger-Turgenev is obscure and threatening.John Lock spent years serving his country as a CIA agent. Trained in every facet of surveillance and secret combat, he was unable to protect his sister and seems now nearly powerless to pierce the web of secret menace that pervades the enterprise her husband left behind.As the danger escalates Lock finds himself on the run, without allies, and drawn inexorably to seek the help of a Russian police inspector. Only then does he become aware of the connection between the two seemingly random crimes one snowy evening. And, inevitably, he is drawn into an international conspiracy reaching far beyond the American capital to Afghanistan and East Asia. The prime player is new, free-market Russia. And rules mean nothing to the sinister, murderous greed of capitalism at its worst. Read Less