Evan Smoak lives by his own code. As a boy he was taken from a foster home to be raised and trained as an off-the books government assassin codenamed Orphan X. Then he broke free to live in the shadows as The Nowhere Man, using his unique skills to help those in desperate need.

But all good things come to end. Pardoned and forced into retirement he thought his killing days were over. And then he met Max Merriweather ...

Max Merriweather hasn't got much left to lose. His marriage has collapsed, his career is on the rocks, and his family despises him. He's the last person you'd entrust with a deadly secret. Which is why his cousin gave him an envelope with the instruction: 'if anything ever happens to me, call the number inside'. Now his cousin is dead Max's own chances of survival look bleak. But, stalked by death, Max meets the one man who might save him: Evan Smoak ...