“Orders are to survive”—the only order that isn’t in any charter. Yet a life bought with dishonor isn’t life: for a scout, the law is conscience.
Spring 1945. The days of the Third Reich are numbered. At the Center’s orders, Soviet intelligence colonel Isaev returns to Berlin once again. Isaev completes the assignment brilliantly—but, that’s just how it goes for spies: a sudden arrest, an escape, a grievous wound, and a forced relocation to Italy, and then to Spain for long months are what separate him from his victorious homeland—while his countrymen celebrate the triumph of Victory.