The year is 1962. John Glenn is in orbit, Audrey Hepburn is breakfasting outside Tiffany's, and Elvis is recording "Bossa Nova Baby." The Gibson and DÔetente are both in fashion, and both are served icy cold. And in the Foreigners' Quarter of Istanbul, a middle-aged Dutch spy has just met a fiery death. Enter Mallory and Morse. Jack Mallory is a laconic ex-soldier from the oilfields of CorpusChristi. Laura Morse is a frostily beautiful Boston Brahmin adept at Floating Hand karate. Both are top operatives for the Consultancy, a shadowy covert-services network run by the enigmatic British ex-commando known as Gray. The Consultancy exists to execute those missions too dangerous or too dirty for the world's conventional intelligence agencies. The murdered man was their friend and colleague, and Gray has ordered them to take revenge.