Evan Tanner ran head first into a piece of shrapnel in Korea and now he can't sleep. Ever. Which can be an asset for a dedicated linguist, term paper forger, Thief, lost cause enthusiast.. spy. Tanner takes all jobs for a covert intelligence organization so secret that even those that work for it have no idea who they are working for. Now his name was supervisor wants him to sneak beside behind the iron curtain, storm and then pregoable castle and Prague alone and rescue an old Slavic who's got a present date with a hangman's news. The trouble is the prisoner is an unrepentant Nazi who makes gorringer look like Mr rogers. Tanner hates nazis. If he's caught which is likely the US will deny that they know him. And tana will be executed. After being tortured, no doubt. All in all, there are many excellent reasons why Tanner should refuse this assignment. So naturally he says yes.