A gripping thriller that follows assassin Nicholai Hel across Asia as he fights to regain his freedom. Sugamo Prison, Japan, October 1951. Twenty-six year-old Nicholai Hel has spent the last three years in solitary confinement for the murder of his mentor. A formidable assassin, linguist and scholar, as well as a master of hoda korosu or 'naked kill', he has developed a supreme awareness of the presence of danger. Suddenly offered the chance of freedom, he feels it now as never before...