Bernard Samson suspects there is a traitor within his department of MI6. A jaded but highly skilled British intelligence agent nearing the end of his career, Samson already got KGB major Eric Stinnes to defect. But when a British KGB agent makes a sweeping confession with a suspicious undertone, the finger points straight back to London-where Stinnes is locked up, refusing to talk. The spy who's in the clear doesn't exist. In the spec­tacular third...

Bernard Samson has been put in a precarious position in the Department by the defection of his wife Fiona. Now, against all warnings, he determines to pursue his own investigation of the affair. Bret Rensselaer, meanwhile, the American-born head of European economics at M16, has also embarked on a personal project: nothing less than the undermining of the Eastern bloc economies.

Bernard Samson must help an undercover agent escape from Berlin but fears that leaks in British intelligence will undermine the attempt.