A murdered spy's flash drive leads his old team into a plague lab—and a killer who leaves white roses.
Who drives the story
First Team's field leader and the one who finds Ferguson's hidden flash drive. He kills the Assassin in a brutal hand-to-hand fight in the plague lab—and walks out of the blast that ends the bioweapon.
First Team's operator who extracts the wounded Corrigan, poses as a journalist in Damascus, and downloads the lab's data while Rankin plants explosives. She escapes the containment breach with Rankin.
First Team member ambushed at a Vienna warehouse; he kills two attackers but is severely wounded and flown back to the U.S. He watches the finale from a hospital bed.
Young analyst and Iranian-networks expert brought in to replace Corrigan. He runs technical surveillance from a Damascus safe house and uncovers the Russian funding in the recovered data.
The CIA officer murdered in his Rome apartment. His hidden flash drive is the map the whole mission follows.
A legendary, never-photographed killer guarding the bioweapon project, who leaves a single white rose as a calling card. He is revealed to be Yuri Volkov, a former KGB operative long thought dead—and his body is never recovered.
Iranian scientist building a genetically modified plague, killed in the lab blast he helped arm.
CIA Deputy Director of Operations who briefs the First Team, assigns Hawk, and reveals Volkov's identity.
How they are connected
First Team's field leader and the one who finds Ferguson's hidden flash drive.
Stephen RankinThe Assassin / Yuri Volkov
He kills the Assassin in a brutal hand-to-hand fight in the plague lab—and walks out of the blast that ends the bioweapon.
Elizabeth AnthonyStephen Rankin
First Team's operator who extracts the wounded Corrigan, poses as a journalist in Damascus, and downloads the lab's data while Rankin plants explosives.
Elizabeth AnthonyJames Corrigan
First Team's operator who extracts the wounded Corrigan, poses as a journalist in Damascus, and downloads the lab's data while Rankin plants explosives.
David 'Hawk' HawkinsJames Corrigan
Young analyst and Iranian-networks expert brought in to replace Corrigan.
Thomas CielloThe Assassin / Yuri Volkov
CIA Deputy Director of Operations who briefs the First Team, assigns Hawk, and reveals Volkov's identity.
Go deeper
The trail a dead man leaves · The professional killer as a mirror · Biology as the bomb · Team as a body that heals
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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