Raymond Shaw is a hero of the first order. He's an ex-prisoner of war who saved the life of his entire outfit, a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the stepson of an influential senator...and the perfect assassin. Brainwashed during his time as a P.O.W., he is a "sleeper" -- a living weapon to be triggered by a secret signal. He will act without question, no matter what order he is made to carry out. To stop Shaw and those who now control him, his former commanding officer, Bennett Marco, must uncover the truth behind a twisted conspiracy of torture, betrayal, and power that will lead him to the highest levels of the government -- and into the darkest recesses of his own mind....

    He is the only known survivor of radioactive thallium poisoning.

    When France fell to the Germans in 1940, a slight, scholarly 28-year-old captain of engineers and professor escaped to England, and with general Charles De Gaulle and Andre Dewavrin, he organized an intelligence service with one goal - to secure a blueprint for Germany's Atlantic wall and place it in the hands of the allies.