Den of the Black Dragon

Rating:
Summary: A gripping tale about a residual issue from the Cold War era
Review: When young Stepon Kutuzov steals a roll of microfilm from the KGB's sucessor organization, the Russian Federal Service, he sets in motion a chilling chain of events that, if the microfilm's contents become public, will expose the existence of a Soviet sleeper cell, a spy unit clandestinely inserted into the U.S., embarrass Russia, and cause several political leaders to be toppled from power.
In this action-oriented thriller, author Larry Franklin, an intelligence specialist and Vietnam combat veteran, who is also a retired police detective, has written of things about which he knows. He spins a tale around the five-member sleeper cell, Den of the Black Dragon, planted in America in '79 during the Cold War. Its assignment? To submerge deeply and wait - for its wake-up call. But its creators did not foresee the demise of the Soviet Union. When all the Dragon cells were allegedly disbanded in '89 by diplomatic agreement between Russia and the allied powers, Black Dragon could not be contacted because its "father" had died, taking to his grave the method of reaching team members.
When Colonel Nikolai Pasternak, aide to the Director of Russian National Defense, is told that the microfilm record has been stolen and might surface in the hands of either German or Polish Intelligence, he understands how embarrassing this revelation could be for Russia, and how damaging it could be for his boss and himself. He decides that they must find and kill all five Black Dragon members, and then forget that the Den ever existed.
But Vasili Stravinsky, a senior member of Russia's new Parliament, has other ideas. He believes the Black Dragon team, strategically placed as it is, will be useful when Russian hard-liners, himself included, return to power. Complicating matters, his niece's son, Dmitri, is one of Black Dragon's sleeper agents, now using the cover of a Houston police detective, John Burrell.
Pasternak prevails and he dispatches Russia's top assassin, Andre Petrovich and a squad of assassins, to do the job.
Meanwhile, the American CIA learns of the existence of the Black Dragon cell and becomes a player in this deadly game when it decides to find the Dragon members and bring them in alive, thus triggering a race between the assassins and the CIA to locate Black Dragon's surviving members.
As Petrovich and his band of assassins proceed with their gruesome work, Burrell, convinced that the cell will never be activated, is enjoying his new life in America, with job, wife and family. He is shocked to discover the deaths of two cell members, upon whom he's been checking periodically. Realizing what is happening, he makes contact with the beautiful Ekatarina, whose cover name is Kathy Hempstead. Together, to the consternation of Burrell's angry wife, and the Houston Police Department, he and Kathy embark on a dangerous journey. They must remain alive, stop the Russian assassins from killing them, and try to stay out of the hands of the CIA.
This is a gripping novel of intrigue about an entirely plausible issue left over from Cold War years. An intense drama, it will provide hours of reading enjoyment. I highly recommend it.