Retired CIA forensic agent, Brock Tanton, a good looking physically fit but elderly man, out for a late-night jog, comes across a gangland shooting on the streets of West Palm Beach. He watches. As the shooting ends one wounded man remains in the back seat of an Escalade. Tanton runs down to the mortally wounded man, crime boss Carlos Graziano, who explains that he was on his way to deliver evidence of his crime syndicate to trusted FBI and Interpol agents. As his dying wish, Graziano makes a special request of the man he just met. Graziano also provides Tanton with information related to the quest as well as the criminal evidence he was transporting. Knowing the people behind his murder, which may include corrupt agents or police, will be after the syndicate data, he provides Tanton with the name of a man that will provide him with false identities. But does Tanton's real identity become known? Tanton agrees to fulfill the dying man's request and heads to New Orleans where he sets up base in the in the French Quarter as Mardi Gras is beginning. When and how does Tanton contact the trusted agents, and will these agents trust Tanton? His investigation takes him to Atlanta, where he meets Sheila, who owns a private investigation agency. What is her connection to Graziano? Do she and Tanton clash? What is the nature of the syndicate and evidence Graziano has given to Tanton and who can Tanton trust? As the investigation unfolds, suspicion is cast on the FBI internally, on Tanton himself, crime boss Tony Oreski and Mexican cartel boss Alvarez, as well as Graziano's own lieutenants.