description: "You believe every word as he convincingly captures the excitement and terror of war. Bearden's swiftness and sureness of pacing draw the reader in. . . ."--Kirkus ReviewsCIA headquarters, 1985: Alexander Fannin, top operative in the Agency's Operations Directorate, is energized by the arrival of the new Director of Central Intelligence, William Casey, who wastes no time in laying ambitious plans to widen the lengthening cracks in the Evil Empire. Burrowed deep in the Kremlin is a handful of CIA agents, who, under Fannin's careful handling, carry out their betrayals of the state. But then the agents begin to fall, one by one. Is their information too good to be true? Are they under KGB control? When Fannin falls in love with a beautiful Ukrainian reporter, orchestrated doubts about his loyalties spread and he is forced out. Casey lets the mole hunters do their work; but soon he quietly calls Fannin back. The task is The Afghan Mujaheddin are being slaughtered by the Soviet Air Force. Casey wants a secret Stinger missile training base set up in the foothills of the Hindu Kush. He wants Fannin to carry the war to the Soviets.----Paktia province, Afghanistan, 1986:Afghan rebels ambush a group of Soviet soldiers, and hand over to Fannin the sole survivor, a young lieutenant. In this simple prisoner exchange lies the beginnings of the most daring and most personal plot of Fannin's life. Commanding the contingent of Soviet officers with whom Fannin negotiates the lieutenant's release is a KGB colonel, whose life is as haunted as any of Fannin's agents in Moscow or Kiev. Alexander dares him to enter a dangerous conspiracy, one that winds its way from Afghanistan to Moscow to Hong Kong and puts both men outside the control of their governments. As they set their plan into motion inside the USSR, a KGB counterintelligence officer with dark secrets of his own makes the exposure of the colonel's betrayal a personal crusade.----Milt Bearden, a decorated thirty-year veteran of the CIA's Clandestine Services who directed the final years of the CIA's covert war in Afghanistan, has put his remarkable experiences to work in this startling tale of Cold War espionage. Within the faltering struggle of a superpower at war with itself is the story of two men caught between national honor and the bonds of blood.
language: English
title: Black Tulip
titlecomplete: Black Tulip
genres: Thriller, Russia, War, Historical Fiction, Fiction
ratings_count: 124
publisher: Random House Trade