This adventure again features Kenneth Aubrey, Deputy Director of British Intelligence, and Patrick Hyde, one of his field agents.
The book begins with a map of the North Sea, UK, Scandinavia and Russia and the Barents Sea. This is followed by documents from Plessey, the weapons manufacturer, the SIS, Ministry of Defence and the US Navy Defence Department, all relating to the installation of a new anti-sonar system for submarines, ‘Leopard’.
The nuclear submarine HMS Proteus has the system installed and is running trials at sea when a distress call is detected.
At about this time a search was underway for Leopard’s inventor, Quinn, who has gone missing. Hyde is attempting to track down Quinn. Soviet agents are attempting to abduct Quinn’s daughter, Tricia, in the hope that she will lead them to Quinn’s whereabouts.
The distress call is a trap and the captain of Proteus, Commander Lloyd falls for it.
The tension mounts as a number of Soviet surface ships and submarines play cat-and-mouse with the Proteus – for their sonar is incapable of detecting the British submarine, thanks to ‘Leopard’.
Ingenious methods are deployed by Russian Valery Ardenyev, office in charge of the Soviet Underwater Special Ops Unit to incapacitate the submarine and take the crew captive and then learn everything about the Leopard system.
A rescue mission is then mounted by Aubrey, using USN special agent Ethan Clark.
The suspense mounts, switching from Hyde’s search in England, Ardenyev’s bold assault in inclement weather, Aubrey’s altercations with Ministers and the Navy’s hierarchy, Commander Lloyd’s concern for the safety of his vessel and crew, and Clark’s near-impossible mission on the edge of the Arctic Circle.
A gripping thriller that time has not spoiled in the slightest.
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