Your bid is expected at the Pendragon auction..Lancelot. The message came in over Comptel's private telex link. Pendragon was the codename for the most influential - and least-known - individual in history. One who dealt in nations: a broker who traded empires, a man who held the coveted key to world power. Now he was a hostage. Comptel would be bidding against other multinationals, Arab sheikhs, presidents and generals: against all who knew that, without Pendragon, nations would topple and empires would fall. Comptel would start the bidding, but the ending of it was Pete Chamberlain's job. His lethal assignment: find Pendragon. Find him fast. Only the kidnappers, the Russians and the CIA stood in his way.