Bøker av John Hayden

Zachary Mannheim has settled into enforced retirement after the taking the blame for political fallout from Russia's successful assassination of CIA Director Ted Granholm, the fiasco associated with an Iranian physicist's attempt to betray Iran's nuclear development program to CIA, and the bloody embarrassment made for TV trade of prisoners on the Bridge of Spies in Berlin. A pending, high level, trade between Russia and CIA will, if consummated, allow President Putin's highest-ranking Intelligence and political officers to be killed at Norway's Trondheim Cathedral during the traditional Christmas Concert Program. Craig Hall, POTUS's National Security Advisor and political hatchet-man, is by disposition and governmental brief, a skilled liar with an appreciation for backstabbing irony. In the White House he asks Mannheim to enumerate the risks and identify the players involved in Operation Reformation a combined Russian/CIA operation neither man authorized nor understands. Hall's instructions appear forthright and guileless. "Define the scope of the threat, if a threat exists, be it political or physical. Identify the players, be they American, foreign or both. Develop a strategy to eliminate the threat. Use any resources or assets you wish, in your discretion. Don't even consider identifying the assets you utilize, employ or coerce. Our mutual defense...is denial." Mannheim will be tested in every conceivable way by a series of stunning deceptions, some authored by dead men and others by the worst of enemies on both sides of the Russian/American divide. Morality and ethics stretched too far, Zachary and his old team will freeze, sweat and bleed before the depth of a stunning treachery becomes clear.

Gunther Probst, CIA Field Director, is found, throat cut, in a saltwater marsh on Cape Cod. Russia's spies have begun to assassinate CIA's best operatives! Raissa Ribeiro, ex-CIA assassin, ex-supermodel, retired after being burned alive, is an obvious suspect. On the run, Raissa provides limited evidence to Zachary Mannheim, CIA's Chief Spy-Hunter. Mannheim cannot convince a Congressional Committee or the Agency's Director of the Kremlin's most secret conspiracy. Tasked with the worst kind of cover-up, Mannheim must juggle too many interests, too many secrets...including his own. Tangled in a Russian web of deceit, photos in Raissa's control can expose Congressmen, Investment Bankers, a senior CIA executive, Britain's Secret Services, and a deep cover foreign agent within CIA. Stolen acoustic data from nuclear submarines, a call-girl's murder and Raissa's involvement in multiple conspiracies are the tip of Mannheim's personal iceberg. Aaron Frankel manages Sheikh Khalid bin Rahman's terrorist billions without regard for collateral damage. Neither is fully aware of the other's plans. Reckless in breaking his own rules, Fulton Bennett, head of CIA's National Clandestine Service intends to confiscate billions from terrorism financier Sheikh Khalid bin Rahman, and Frankel, the Sheikh's investment guru. Caught in a honey-trap, Bennett must rely on Mannheim to rescue his career and hijack Frankel's billions. Sir Edward Poynter, head of Britain's Secret Services, plans independent action against Frankel. Caroline Poynter, Sir Edward's daughter, is Sheikh bin Rahman's lover. Her secret history with Fulton Bennett comes with murderous entanglements. Andrew Poynter, son of Sir Edward, is selling secret data related to US and British nuclear submarines. Grover Norris, former CIA Director and Investment Banker, inserted in Bennett's job by POTUS, orders Mannheim to maintain Bennett's house arrest - and authorizes a kill-order on Raissa. Betrayed by Grover Norris at CIA, Raissa's planned execution is flawed. Her celebrity, sexuality and skill prove lethal for contract killers. Re-evaluating Gunther's murder, she returns home to Rio's infamous slums to create a daring pair of videos to lure Gunther's killer. Viral in two hours, the daring, provocative, videos tilt the playing-field. Andrew's European successes are intoxicating. He flies to Rio to finalize a half billion dollar sale to Brazil's navy. Another major assassination rocks CIA. In Rio chaos reigns. Luck and fate intrude upon everyone's future. Spy-hunters cannot rationalize the truth...only a brutal assessment of reality delivers traitors to prison and terrorists to their funerals. Zachary Mannheim contends with too many loose ends...playing God exacts a terrible price. He balances a Spy-Hunter's artfulness with a politician's cunning, then metes out justice and revenge in unequal proportion.