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Summary
Summary
Ex-KGB agent Valeri Yernin, known as "the Surgeon" for the accuracy of his hits, is supposed to be dead. But the agents at the National Security Intercept Center match his voice 98 percent while monitoring a call from Karachi--a call in which Yernin vows to finally get even with military analyst Bill Lane.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Top-flight adventure writer Flannery brings back U.S. military intelligence analyst Bill Lane and his lover, British agent Frannie Shipley, this time hot on the trail of an old Russian submarine, which is said to have been sunk with all hands but has in fact been sold to unfriendly powers. While Lane (perhaps the best-dressed espionage agent since James Bond) tries to locate the sub and identify the purchaser, he and Frannie must also deal with Valeri Yernin, a psychopathic Russian assassin who has sworn to kill them both in revenge for a previous mission they foiled. The scenes shift swiftly among Switzerland, London, the Channel Islands and the sub's ever-changing locations as it slides underwater toward its mysterious destination. Plenty of shoot-em-ups set the stage for the final violent confrontation between Yernin, Lane and Frannie (herself no mean markswoman), capped by a final explosive submarine event. As in the previous Bill Lane adventures (Winner Take All and Kilo Option), the good guys are sympathetic and responsible and even most of the bad guys have some humanity. One hopes we'll be seeing more of Bill and Frannie. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
More suave than Bond and just as death-proof, brainy, and with a touch more brawn, Bill Lane of the National Security Agency (Kilo Option, 1996, etc.) once more takes on ex-KGB assassin Valeri Yernin (``the Surgeon''), whos less dead than was once thought. The Barents Sea is the graveyard of Russian nuclear reactors and ships no longer serviceable. But when a Romeo-class diesel-electric sub is accidentally scuttled there with no survivors yet actually seems to be on its way to Morocco for sale to Sierra Leoneor perhaps to a country even closer to the USLane attempts to divert the sale and offers a Russian diplomat in Washington twice the price suggested by the enemy. Yernin, meanwhile, vows to kill Lane, knowing that his Achilles heel is Lane's fellow spy and fiancée Francis Shipley, a lieutenant commander in the British Navy and liaison between the SIS and CIA intelligence communities. Disguised as Vandemeer, a South African with a letter of credit for 100 million pounds sterling, Lane flies to London and dickers with the Russians. Yernin arrives as well. Is the assassin now finding Russians who have illegally salted money away in offshore banks, killing them, then draining their accounts? Lane himself has an $8 million inheritance, which keeps him in fawn-colored, hand-tailored Italian silk suits, Hérmes ties, cashmere sweaters, Gucci loafersor hand-sewn half bootsand the best Dom Perignon, with Francis telling him, ``My God, you're gorgeous. Yernin bungles his first attack on Lane and Francis. A second attempted assassination also fails. Then Yernin kidnaps Francis and flies her off to the Western Sahara, straps a Semtex bomb to her leg, and awaits the arrival of Lane. Fast and amusing. If Flannery (a.k.a. David Hagberg) has any luck, his hero could rise to the top as a Bond clone.
