The C.I.

Slovenian-American Jericho Paich finds himself under arrest by snarling Cleveland police cop Keenan Mayo and forced to be a non-paid confidential informant, setting up friends and strangers to be hauled in for illegal drug use.

He turns for help to his mother's live-in lover, ex-marine officer Laird Janiver. The two have never gotten along, but Jerry has nowhere else to turn.

Janiver, a studious African American major who recalls how to kill, decides to help. That brings the two men into co...