Chasing a scoop on the CIA, a reporter finds his own name on the hit list. In Madison, Wisconsin, a dairy farmer drops dead of a heart attack. A few days later, a small-town citizen in Iowa is killed in a three-car pile-up. Few men know the connection between these deaths, and only one is willing to talk to Harker, an investigative reporter with sources on the inside of every agency in Washington. His source at the CIA is named Trotman, and he knows things that men cannot discuss in the light of day. The two dead men were CIA agents, defectors from Communist states living under assumed names. Trotman tells Harker not out of civic duty, but because the reporter will be one of the next to die. Getting the story of this terrifying conspiracy down in print is Harker's only chance for survival. He must work quickly to stay alive, but that's no problem. Reporters like Harker love deadlines.