Michael Rose is the chief financial officer of a top energy company headquartered in Washington, D.C. At forty-two, he is the odds-on favorite to become the next CEO. He is also the proud father of two kids, and he's about to find out just how far he'd go to protect them. Rose is working hard to acquire a global information technology company. What he doesn't know is that the company is a cutout--a company used as a pawn by intelligence agencies. The plan has met resistance from two of his board members, though Rose has never known why, and the IT company is also trying to avoid being acquired. But he pushes ahead, unaware that he's tightening the noose around his own neck--especially when one of the complicit foreign governments realizes he's about to discover their involvement.