A tough, resourceful master of his trade, British Intelligence agent Nick Stone has just been given a chilling ultimatum: find a missing agent who appears to have defected or lose the guardianship of his beloved nine-year-old daughter. In Stone's mind, there is no choice. The "runner" is Sarah Greenwood, U.K. liaison with the Counterterrorism Center, a cell set up by the CIA to warn against potential terrorist attacks. Steel-willed, beautiful, cunning, Sarah is also Nick's former lover, the only woman who has ever been allowed under his rough, impenetrable guard. Relying on his keen instincts and cool logic, Nick tracks Sarah to the mountainous backwoods of North Carolina. There, in a remote cabin, she conspires with two Middle Eastern men.