Hungry for work, an ex–air force pilot takes a deadly assignment in Manila Despite three years of exemplary service flying for his country in the South Pacific, Spence Rankin can’t find work. He’s losing a bar fight when his old friend Ulio Kane appears. A former companion of Rankin’s, Kane was born in Manila and spent the war organizing guerilla warfare against the Japanese. They killed his family during the occupation, so Kane faked his death and set about preparing for peacetime life. But now Kane has received a plea for help, signed by his father—who’s supposed to be dead. Is the note genuine, or is it a trap lain by his enemies in the mining business? He must return to Manila to be sure, and wants to hire Spence as a bodyguard. The pilot agrees to take the job, for death in the tropics is preferable to boredom in California.