Inspired by actual events: When a powerful Chinese general wants to defect to the US, the CIA tries to recruit a recent Harvard grad teaching at a Beijing University to exfiltrate the man's daughter--with treacherous and deadly consequences. Andrew Callahan arrives in Beijing fresh out of Harvard, planning to spend an adventurous year studying Mandarin and teaching at the elite International Affairs University. The IAU is known as a training ground for diplomats and spies. But Andrew has no idea that his budding relationship with the beautiful and self-assured dean's assistant, Lily Jiang, will also entangle him in a conspiratorial web of global proportions.
A CIA officer approaches Andrew and informs him that Lily is the daughter of a top Chinese general on the verge of defecting. Even more shocking is that they need Andrew's help to get her to the US--and have been secretly grooming him for this mission since he was at Harvard.
If Andrew agrees, he'll face harrowing odds to pull off one of the greatest intelligence coups in American history--an exploit certain to shape the balance of power for decades. If he refuses, it could cost Lily and her family their freedom--or even their lives.
The story was buried, known only by those who survived or are at the highest echelons of government. Until now.
