From the author of THE NINJA comes the first book in Eric Van Lustbader's CHINA MAROC series.

Jian is the Champion, the Man who Excels. His arts are martial and philosophic, terrifyingly physical, cruelly cerebral. Who is he? What are his aims?

Is he Jake Maroc: a man haunted by his past, threatened by his present, careless for his future - except to exact the vengeance which is his? Is he Nichiren, Jake's deadly adversary, as skilled in the arts of survival as Maroc himself?

Four pieces of jade hold the answer: like pieces in wei qi, the Chinese game of strategy, they are to be used as part of a Grand Game. Honk Kong is part of the prize - but only part.

As violence breeds violence, deception breeds chaos and the great nations of the world manoeuvre for position, one man and his secret strategy could destroy them all...