In the closing stages of the Cold War, a Ukrainian weapons designer is about to defect to the West. But is the gun she offers worth the risks? MI6 have no-one with skills both in electronics and Russian. Alan Rushton, a newly-graduated engineer working in industry, has the technical and language skills required. For Queen and Country, he agrees to go behind the Iron Curtain and assess the information. He travels to attend a conference under cover of being a pig farmer, with wife in tow. But who is this wife, and what are her motives? Is the defector playing a double game against the Stasi and the KGB? And why are the CIA so interested in the whole thing?Filled with 1970s period detail, the story follows Alan through Berlin, The Baltic and the Swiss Alps as he confronts the stark reality of his covert actions and faces his own fears. As so many keep telling him – this isn’t James Bond.
In the closing stages of the Cold War, a Ukrainian weapons designer is about to defect to the West. But is the gun she offers worth the risks? MI6 have no-one with skills both in electronics and Russian. Alan Rushton, a newly-graduated engineer working in industry, has the technical and language skills required. For Queen and Country, he agrees to go behind the Iron Curtain and assess the information. He travels to attend a conference under cover of being a pig farmer, with wife in tow. But who is this wife, and what are her motives? Is the defector playing a double game against the Stasi and the KGB? And why are the CIA so interested in the whole thing?Filled with 1970s period detail, the story follows Alan through Berlin, The Baltic and the Swiss Alps as he confronts the stark reality of his covert actions and faces his own fears. As so many keep telling him – this isn’t James Bond.