John Spencer is a retired MI5 operative living quietly on a nest egg he acquired by assisting a rich man’s son. On the beach of his Ibiza villa, Helga Yung, a young German girl, is executed in a most flamboyant style. Intrigued by what John knows is a hit, he comes out of retirement to find answers. He tracks Helga’s body to Zurich and a banking connection, then on to her sister in London, where he learns Helga was more than a secretary. As he begins to find answers, people start to get eliminated and he becomes a target. He is conned back to his old department and into the manipulative hands of his old boss, Hiller-Jones. Hiller-Jones not only has dead agents to deal with, he also has a double-agent embedded deep in his own department. Unaware that exploitation stretches from Whitehall to Langley, John seeks the help of CIA operative and trusted friend Stuart Gardner. They realize they are being set up to find the double-agents and will become expendable if they learn the power behind a possible coup in an African country.

Their enquiries take them to Africa and the emerging oil-rich country of Marumbia with its corrupt government. The iron-fisted President Wambala is no fool and crushes everything in his way. He has no loyalties and will do business with London, Washington and Moscow – whoever personally takes care of him financially. John forms an alliance with Ben Morrison at the British Embassy, but is unsure of Ben’s loyalty. He is forced to kill his contact, Xnifu Nickabala, when he learns he is a plant. Both he and Stuart fall into the hands of the Sabatage Chomba, the President’s security chief. Chomba forces them to witness the execution of the real Nickabala as part of the cruel justice dealt out at the hands of the President. Unsure of their own future and who Nickabala is and what his goals were, John and Stuart start to play by their own rules of survival to stay ahead of the KGB and the trust they once had in their own people.

A raid made on the Wambala Detention Center reveals a wealth of revelations and support that sheds light on the manipulations. Knowing who’s behind the coup and how it’s to be conducted, they use their skills to avert the action and in the end establish where the responsibility lies. Jonnie is left with a final choice; he can deliver the double-agents or take his revenge on the exploiters.