The Ambler Warning

Hal Ambler a former Consular Operations agent in the
Political Stabilization Unit is kept heavily medicated and
closely watched in a psychiatric facility just off the US
coast. However Ambler is unique amongst the other patients
in the Parrish Island psychiatric facility because he is
perfectly sane. With the help of a sympathetic nurse
Ambler manages to clear his mind of the drug-induced haze
and stage a daring escape off the island. Although he is
desperate to discover who put him on Parrish Island and
why the world in which he returns appears to have
conveniently forgotten him. Friends and associates no
longer recognize him no official records of his existence
are to be found and the face he sees in the mirror is not
his own. After contacting several old associates who do
not recognize him or even have any recollection of his
existence Ambler goes to a cabin in certain part of
country which had always been his lone solace even during
his days as a field agent. He arrives to find no cabin and
the landscape looked such that there hadnt been any
before. A tranquillizer dart armed with carfetanyl then
strikes him but does not affect his thought processes
severely . He tracks down the sniper and forces the sniper
a freelance operative to give him authorisation codes.
However before the operative can be milked for more
information he is killed by a sniper whose single bullet
also grazed Amblers neck. He then contacts the agency that
is tracking him down. Ambler comes in contact with agents
from his past in the Political Stabilization Unit. Among
those is Osiris a blind operative who had an uncanny
linguistic ability and has also regarded Ambler as his
close friend. His friend is subsequently shot and killed
by a Chinese intelligence officer independent of the
organization Ambler is being hired by who believes Ambler
wants to assassinate the Chinese head of state. He
uncovers a conspiracy involving a State Department
official to kill the Chinese President in order to hinder
the shift in power and to restore the old world order of
Pax Americana in accordance with her university lecturer
Ashton Palmers fanatical ideals. Ambler manages to unravel
the conspiracy while at the same time discovering that the
nurse who had freed him and supposedly helped him on his
endeavours to find out more about himself was in league
with the Palmerites or so those who conform to Palmers
ideals are called. Amblers ability to determine others
emotions and pick up even the slightest of change in
facial expression is foiled for the nurse was trained in
Method acting. At the end of the book Ambler is seen to be
lounging with the desk-jockey CIA officer who had assisted
him in self-discovery and the foiling of the conspiracy.