British agent Bernard Samson is suffering the con-sequences of having meddled when he was instructed to steer clear. Far from being thanked for ferreting out what appeared to be evidence of an unprecedented breach of security in the Secret Service, he is on the run from an arrest warrant issued by the Service, naming him a traitor.

Now he is hiding in Berlin, hiding on a run-down, dangerous, dead-end street that crashes up against the Wall and

January 1988. The Moscow-Paris express train rattles through the Russian night carrying Bernard Samson and his grievously sick companion, Jim Prettyman, home. But for Samson this is just the beginning of another long and dangerous journey. Anger and suspicion sparkle like snowflakes on the cold night air. Communists still rule Russia. Polish soldiers have taken control of the Warsaw palaces. The Eastern Bloc is crumbling like hard clay, and everyone's