CIA Headquarters, 1985: Alexander Fannin, top operative in the Agency's Operations Directorate, is energized by the arrival of the new Director of Central Intelligence, William Casey, who wastes no time in laying ambitious plans to widen the lengthening cracks in the Evil Empire. Burrowed deep in the Kremlin is a handful of CIA agents, who, under Fannin's careful handling, carry out their betrayals of the state. But then the agents begin to fall, one by one. Are they under KGB control?Paktia province, Afghanistan, 1986: Afghan rebels ambush a group of Soviet soldiers, and hand over to Fannin the sole survivor, a young lieutenant. In this simple prisoner exchange lies the beginnings of the most daring and most personal plot of Fannin's life. Commanding the contingent of Soviet officers with whom Fannin negotiates the lieutenant's release is a KGB colonel, whose life is as haunted as any of Fannin's agents in Moscow or Kiev. Alexander dares him to enter a dangerous conspiracy, one that winds its way from Afghanistan to Moscow to Hong Kong and puts both men outside the control of their governments. Read Less