The Eternal Emperor had returned at last from the dead, to pick up the pieces of his crumbling Empire. But even that great leader could not halt the Empire's decline alone. And so Sten, master spy, military strategist, and assassin, found himself appointed Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the Altaic Cluster, where a brewing civil war threatened the stability of the Empire itself. Quelling a civil war was nothing new for Sten. But as one thing after another went wrong, he began to suspect that he was up against more than a mere local disturbance. Someone -- operating in deepest cover, with the highest authority -- was working behind the scenes to manipulate events and escalate disaster. And that someone wanted nothing more than to see Sten dead . . .