Lead had already begun to fly before former CIA analyst Lee Carruthers could get to Dubai to investigate the death of George Branson, and each question she asked ratcheted the danger up by a notch. She knew George. He was a CIA officer, but she discovered that he had other identities as well . In Dubai he was Gil Brady, and he worked for the Russian merchant of death Sergei Malyakov. In Istanbul he was Karl Spiegel, and he worked for Belarusian arms dealer Felix Gringikov. He might have been collateral damage in the war between Malyakov and Gringikov for control of the post-Soviet arms trade, but Lee had to determine if Branson still worked for the CIA when he was killed or if he'd sold out and if so, to whom. She had to answer that question quickly, before she was sent on a one-way trip to Karachi.