From Publishers Weekly
A master of espionage alphabet soup, Harrington ( The Cromwell File ) dishes up not just the CIA, KGB, MI5 and M16 but the BND, DGSE, UB, GIGN and HVA. And others. The story revolves around the KGB's new way of fighting in the shadows as it tries industrial (i.e., computer) espionage. The Russian team is led by ex-Cold Warrior Kedrow and countered by preppy CIA vet Russ Tobin. Plot twists involve Kedrov's lover Mriya's attempts to get him to defect; a nasty, untrustworthy KGB backup; Tobin's urge to retire; and Soviet anti-Semitism. Two innocents working for an international computer firm are manipulated by a large cast of sometimes unsavory characters, notably a ruthless Frenchman. Harrington's writing is as smoothly cinematic as ever and there's plenty of action, some of it bloody, but the race to save chip technology seems a bit pallid after all those world-on-the-brink nail-biters from the bad old days. The epilogue is positively cozy.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Political realignments bring new ends to the spying business but the means stay the same--in a fine story of industrial espionage by the author of Virus, For the Defense, etc. The computer gap neatly replaces the missile gap in Harrington's clever post-cold-war thriller. Realizing that the struggling republics of the former union cannot even begin to reach economic parity with their former military rivals without comparable computers, the head of the KGB sends his best spies out to steal the latest industrial secrets from an international consortium in the old hotbed of military espionage, united Berlin. KGB Col. N.P. Kedrov sets a handsome former East German and a randy Russian girl to trap a couple of sex-starved computer technicians and pick their brains for the latest in chip secrets. The poor technicians don't stand a chance. Fortunately for the computer firm, the CIA is still on the job. Veteran agent and rabid Berlinophile Russ Tobin is tipped to the action and begins to hunt down the KGB team. It's a reunion of sorts for Tobin and Col. Kedrov: they've butted heads before, and they share the respect and admiration of Kedrov's chain-smoking Jewish girlfriend. As things heat up, the agents are joined by Tobin's beautiful ex-wife, a ruthless top French spy, and a few old-fashioned Soviet goons. Very nicely done. The industrial gimmick easily subs for the old military problems; Berlin looks terrific; and middle age runs circles around youth. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
