Evan Smoak, a.k.a., Orphan X, grabbles with his most dangerous mission yet, the latest in the bestselling series.

Do you need my help?

Those five words are the first thing anyone hears when they dial the encrypted line of the man known only as the Nowhere Man.

For years Evan Smoak-once the government's deadliest black-ops assassin, Orphan X-has answered that call. The number passes in whispers from one desperate soul to the next: people with nowhere else to turn, facing threats no one else can stop. He takes the job, he finishes it, he vanishes. No trace. No thanks. No mercy for those who deserve none.

But this life has carved deep grooves. Every mission costs him another piece of normalcy, another chance at a future. Now Evan stands at a turning point, weighing the toll of the impossible against the humanity he's never known how to embrace. Then Brooke Hawthorne dials the number.

A young woman held captive, forced into a scheme so dark it nearly defies belief. The men guarding her are professionals; the operation behind them is worse. Getting Brooke out is only the beginning.

Because the moment Evan moves, he draws the eye of "Boz"-the cold, meticulous architect pulling every string. A man who has spent years building something monstrous, and who views the Nowhere Man as an unacceptable threat.

Boz does not tolerate threats.

To protect Brooke, to shield the handful of people he's allowed himself to care about, and to preserve the thin line of justice he still believes in, Evan will have to do what he does best. Because when the Nowhere Man answers the call, there is no half-measure. There is only the mission.

And this time, the mission is everything.