Cipher Number 7

“A good sniper feels the presence of time, the movement. Death's not just a matter of accuracy, but ultimately the order of things and finality in terms both clean and humane.”

Ivan Stavros hears his father Yannis’s voice echo through a life emptied after losing him to CIA extraordinary rendition. In the more than twenty years since, the voice guides Ivan's sense of responsibility, in both life and the act of taking it. Clean. Humane. Swift.

None of these principles describe the perverse death he's hired to inflict upon seven defective children purchased from a pharmaceutical giant's fertility kiosk. Dispatching the sixth with a bionanotechnological weapon, self-loathing squeezing the trigger, Ivan questions his capability for detachment.

Then he begins the search for Number 7.

“They make the rules so when they break them you know who's in charge.”

A dystopian future not too hard to imagine finds six-year-old Dakota in prison. Sentenced to Life, his only hope is savvy appellate attorney Patricia Naughton and her eccentric paralegal. Inside the razor wire fences Dakota learns how to cope from Teagan, a seasoned criminal twice his age, and rarely invested in the smaller boy's best interests. Dakota remains oblivious to secrets hiding in his own genetic code, secrets capable of killing or saving him, depending on who finds out.

When Ivan, Patricia and Dakota's paths cross, new clues reveal a nefarious conspiracy concealing Number 7. Ivan's old enemies leave an encrypted trail going back to the Cold War, when spies risked their lives across the Iron Curtain. With the CIA in pursuit Ivan hunts down the truth through Miami, Seoul, Israel and London, and even deeper into recesses of his own memory. Yannis and secretive Uncle Ellison loom large in Ivan's childhood arms smuggling exploits. They were Ivan's heroes, so why does he resent them?

“Anonymity is freedom.”

Anonymity is lonely. “Who am I?”

The product of thirty years finding refuge in anonymity, names as diverse as the colorful customs stamps in passports stashed around the world.

Identity is only as good as faith in it. Ivan is losing his faith.

With powerful government forces tightening the noose, Ivan secures invaluable help from a most unlikely taboo source. The precocious crew of millionaire entrepreneur and megayacht owner Samuel Coletti help Ivan discover compassion, love, and purpose . . . and maybe even hope when the mysterious past surrounding the daughter of an East German spy disarms Ivan's reticent defenses.

Ivan's journey is a fast-paced conspiracy thriller that asks what it really means to be human? Will he discover his unrivaled skills and instinct aren't enough to stay one step ahead of peril? Is the search for his father hopeless?

And most critical to satisfying his loathsome contract with Hizer Pharmaceuticals, where is Number 7?