In Salobin's head was enough information to keep the U.S. on top of the Soviets for years. Salobin had been feeding the CIA until things got too hot in Mother Russia and he slipped over the border into Turkey, boarding a train for Istanbul. But he never arrived.

Washington got a note: send a man to Beirut to meet a two-bit hood named Rafei. Rafei would take Killmaster to where Salobin was being held prisoner. But someone else knew about the meeting - someone who was planning an ambush that would eliminate Nick Carter and the most important Russian defector in ten years... in a single burst of machine gun fire!