Since the age of twelve, Evan Smoak was Orphan X: raised and trained as part of off-the-books operation designed to create deniable intelligence assets-- i.e. assassins. Now his past is catching up to him-- someone at the very highest level of government has been trying to eliminate every trace of the Orphan Program. Striking back, his target is the man who started the Program and who is now the most heavily guarded person in the world: the President of the United States. But President Bennett activates the one man who has the skills and experience to track down and take out Orphan X: the first recruit of the Program, Orphan A. -- adapted fromback cover.