Abstract:
In international conflict, an accident of birth determines one's allegiance. When the conflict ends, Aleksei, former KGB colonel, former “illegal of the Center,” accepts a well-paid freelance assignment from a foreign entity. As back-up, he ensures the support of a brother under the skin, a senior CIA officer, who in turn calls on the ordained spook of the Papal Nunciate in Washington. No deaths are involved, just spectacular destruction. The CIA officer and Monsignor Mulligan are puzzled as to whom Aleksei is working for . . . and Aleksei doesn't know, either. The scene: French Guiana, the launchpad of the European Space Agency.