Frederick Forsyth · 1984 · thriller
Frederick Forsyth's 1984 thriller. Moscow plans to break the unwritten protocol that keeps atomic weapons off enemy soil: a crack agent will assemble a small bomb in an English town and detonate it beside an American airbase, to swing a general election. Piece by smuggled piece it comes in - and John Preston of MI5 has almost nothing to go on.
- 1Moscow
In Moscow, a plan is approved that breaks the last unwritten rule of the Cold War - to assemble a small atomic device inside Britain, detonate it beside an American airbase, and let the political shock do the rest.
- 2Glasgow
The components come in one at a time by a dozen couriers, through Glasgow and other ports, each piece harmless alone - until a drowned seaman and a stray polonium disc put MI5's John Preston on the trail.
- 3Ipswich
In a rented house in Ipswich, the Soviet agent Petrofsky lives the life of an ordinary Englishman, taking delivery of each part as it arrives and fitting them together in an upstairs room, while the clock runs down.
- 4Bentwaters
The target is the American airbase in the Suffolk countryside, and Preston has hours to find one anonymous house among thousands - a race decided in a suburban street with the device already assembled and armed.