Lemuel Gulliver once mapped the world with steel and sweat, rising from the decks of a segregated navy to become the highest-ranking Black military attaché in U.S. history. Now retired, he lectures on geopolitics at Chicago State University, hiding a lifetime of classified voyages behind chalkboards and tailored suits.
 
But when a guest lecturer from London begins charming faculty and students alike, Gulliver’s instincts flare. The man calls himself Jacque Odinbé—an eloquent scholar with a slippery résumé and too many aliases to trace. The truth? He’s better known across global intelligence channels as Blank Slate—a conman without a past, a mimic without allegiance, and a walking black hole of forged credentials and quiet assassinations.
 
When faculty begin disappearing and top-secret Department of Defense maps surface in an underground auction in Marrakesh, Gulliver follows the trail—not through oceans, but across academic back channels, diplomatic galas, and the dangerous memories of his own Cold War sins.
 
To stop Blank Slate, Gulliver must face the ghosts he buried in uniform, the files he hoped would stay sealed, and a world that’s moved on without him. Because sometimes the most dangerous man in the room isn’t the one hiding his face.
 
It’s the one who knows the truth about yours.