From the author: the main thing in this novel is not a masterfully tangled intrigue, not unexpected plot twists. Its artistic supertask is to analyze a human vice that is terrible and eternal—betrayal. Alex is a traitor by order. He is instructed to play the role of a traitor and infiltrate the CIA in order to identify the real traitor hiding at the very top levels of the KGB… The higher-ups of intelligence play with the enemy a kind of chess game, in which it is easy to sacrifice not only pawns but also pieces in order to beat the enemy queen. Where is morality and the value of an individual human life here… One of the chapters is, for that matter, titled: “On the advantages of a rag soaked in an intoxicating mixture over a multi-barrel submachine-gun of the system ‘Venus’, caliber 5.6 millimeters, rate of fire 5000 shots per minute.”