Killer Reflex

In the mid-1980s, the KGB develops a high-ranking representative of the power structures, suspected of connections with British intelligence. The evidence is already in hand, but at the crucial moment the suspect slips away from arrest and manages to leave the country.

KGB Major Maria Pogodina understands that pulling this off alone is impossible— which means the fugitive had an assistant. The investigation points to Anna Shatrova, an employee of the Ministry of Defense. Surveillance reveals a chain of dubious meetings and strange contacts. It seems that only a little more— and the trap will snap shut… but at the very last moment, Shatrova makes a move that completely throws Pogodina off.

The opponent is calculating and cold-blooded: his weapon is iron logic, persistence, and precise planning. He believes he has calculated the outcome of the confrontation. But he doesn’t account for the main thing: he is opposed by Soviet counterintelligence officers—top-class professionals for whom risk, honor, and an unbending will are not just words.

“In Valery Sharapov’s books, the era is conveyed so vividly that one step more and you’re already among the characters: calm investigators, slippery criminals, and frightened people. And desperate operatives will take you for one of their own and immediately draw you into yet another dangerous operation…” — Sergey Zverev, author of action novels.