Former CIA station chief of Azerbaijan Mark Sava has given up the spy game and become a professor in the city of Baku. But when a gunman makes a brazen attempt on his life in the hallowed halls of the national library, Sava suddenly becomes a persona non grata in his adopted home.The Azeri government gives him only a few hours to leave the country, and the CIA wants him back in the US. But Sava learns that his friend John Decker has been kidnapped—and knows he has no option but to find Decker. He teams up with ex–CIA spy and former girlfriend Daria Buckingham, and the two soon find themselves being chased by Chinese intelligence agents through the underworlds of Turkmenistan and Iran, caught in the middle of a secret conflict over oil that has the US and Iran tumbling headlong into war.The explosive sequel to The Colonel’s Mistake, The Leveling brings to life in electrifying detail one of the most dangerous regions of the globe.