A hardened early life in a Louisiana swamp left Wade shy and confused with feelings he didn’t understand about himself or the opposite sex. After four long years of hard intelligence training guided by his handler Megan Winslow he still stands in awe of her capabilities. Something happened over four years of telephone calls that changed their relationship from one of just respect to a closer friendship and perhaps even much stronger feelings than either would express because of professional boundaries.
Megan reaches out to Wade concerned over the shooting incident at Fort Benning. Wade becomes suspicious of possible agency involvement in that incident. Is Megan intentionally or unintentionally being directed by the agency? Trust has to be re-established but first Wade has to get past his last qualifying tests.
As Wade’s intelligence training comes to an end, he and Megan meet for the first time in Washington, D.C. Since Megan will no longer be his handler both are anxious to find out if unspoken feelings are real or still constrained. Their time together reveals tender bonds that neither expected.
A covert assignment in North Africa comes to Wade from an unsuspecting former CIA operative who goes by the name of Leo. On a chance meeting at a CIA reception Wade and Leo exchange questions and answers on what life is like as a CIA field operative. Little does Wade know that his limited covert experience and fresh face among operatives is exactly what Leo needs for his dangerous mission.
Wade chooses to take the new assignment against Megan’s wishes and because of imposed secrecy he is only able to leave her a poem about his immediate departure. The poem contains coded clues about his whereabouts which Megan doesn’t understand.
The rusting hull of the bulk cargo ship clears the lighthouse at Tangier, North Africa. Hidden below its lower deck are Russian arms destined for Sierra Leon. The arms shipment was arranged by a rogue asset and former British MI-6 operative, Colin Sikes, now in business for himself. The arms will support the radical tyrant Mabuto whose political coup gains momentum in his war torn African country. Mabuto has paid handsomely for his arms and will not stop at anything until he receives them.
In an empty metals warehouse in Tangier two bodies groan in pain from gunshot wounds suffered in an intense fire fight. They lay among seven other dead bodies riddled with bullet holes on the blood soaked floor. Within hours all evidence of what happened in the warehouse is scrubbed clean by a covert clean-up crew. The two wounded men are taken for intensive interrogation to a country that treats prisoners differently than western civilized countries. The empty steel warehouse now absent of its $5 Million cash arms payment will soon return to a quiet unoccupied status awaiting a new renter of industrial property.
When Wade’s assignment ends there is no longer concern about his whereabouts but where is the person he now cares most about in his life?
