Agents are disappearing.  Drake is assigned to be the next courier in order to find out how.  But he has three contacts along the way.  All three have impeccable records.  But which one is working for the other side?

There's a security leak and the suspect is murdered by someone unknown.  Drake is assigned to unravel who killed the informant and discover just how the information was being passed on.

An agent is killed in the field and Drake is sent to the African country where it happened to investigate the generals and leaders of a small mercenary band intent on seeing the country's leader die while under the knife in a hospital so that they may take control of the country.

The Ministry wants to continue good relations with an African country.  But agents have discovered that certain elements of that country have signed agreements with the Chinese.  It is up to Drake to find the evidence of this and turn it over to the African country's Prime Minister in order to expose the truth to him and keep relations with the British.

There's a nice Portuguese villa where an English lady and her husband reside.  Lodger's there are suspected when the husband disappears and Drake is assigned to see what's going on.  He is brought in on a smuggling ring by the lodgers who say they are smuggling industrial diamonds.  In reality, they are smuggling missile electronics.

After a fellow M9 agent is murdered Drake is sent to Rome to investigate and after retrieving the dead agent's tape recorder, learns about a ‘murder incorporated' organisation. Drake arranges for himself to be assassinated at midnight in order to flush out the assassin and to identify the leader of the organisation.