Synopsis

Mason Pierce has been a special operations agent for the Central Intelligence Agency for several years and undergone a plethora of missions. Ever since his recruitment, he has shown a level of skill and fortitude seen only in the greatest of agents. However, when the director of the National Clandestine Service, a man known only as Smith, assigns him to a mission unlike anything he has executed before, all his skills are put to the test. The mission: an assassination. The target: Chung Dong-Li--the President of the People's Republic of China.

Chung, who Smith tells Mason is on the verge of instilling severe anti-American policies and even bringing about war, is travelling to Venice, Italy for two weeks in late November. Mason's job is to kill him the moment he steps off his boat. However, things begin to go wrong even before Mason reaches Venice when he is attacked by international criminal Philip Chier, an old enemy of his. After dealing with Chier, Mason makes his way to Venice only to be attacked again, this time by an assailant who had been planted as a water taxi driver.

The morning of the assassination soon comes, and Mason prepares himself accordingly. Chung arrives on schedule and begins the procession out of his boat. However, looking through the scope of his sniper, Mason notices a thin line running down the side of his face--a face mask. It's a decoy. Another assassin, however, does not notice this, and, after shooting the decoy from the top for Mason's hotel building, makes a well-executed escape until being blown to smithereens. With security at the Palazzo Loredan, Chung's temporary residence, Mason wanders to St. Mark's Plaza the next day, where another attempt on his life signals that something is terribly wrong. Surviving that, he meanders the sidewalks of Venice until he nearly collides with Adriana Bacchavelli, and Italian agent for the AISE whom he had coincidentally run into on his mission in Riyadh. Adriana, with her own ulterior motives which had been assigned to her, joins forces with Mason to plan an assassination attempt involving breaking in to the Palazzo Loredan and poisoning Chung. The two plot the operation as romance buds between the two of them and more attempts are made on Mason's life.

As time goes on, their situation becomes more and more perilous and, though Mason does not discover the truth until much later, things are not as they seem.