About the book
Russian Army Colonel Sasha Zukov could never have imagined himself collaborating
with American CIA agents, nor could he have foreseen falling in love with
a beautiful Afghan girl from the Hazara tribe, who believe themselves to
be descendants of Ghengis Khan.
Excerpts:
Nigel Snow, an English exchange student, had actually been the one who
spotted the floating corpse. Nigel had been out for his ritual early morning
run along the stone embankment above the Moscow River when he noticed something
in the water below. He stopped, then inched as close to the revetment as
the guardrail would permit and looked more closely. There was no doubt
about it; that was a human body floating face down. In the center of the
back, right between the shoulder blades, there appeared a faint brown stain.
***
When it was discovered that the dead man was no less than General Sergi
Zukov, a GRU staff officer, the apparatus of Soviet military intelligence
woke. Like a huge octopus sensing a threat, it began to gather itself.
In another hour, 370 agents worldwide had been alerted, likely scenarios
discussed, and assets readied. The octopus was on the move.
***
In reporting to the joint civilian-military intelligence panel on her autopsy
of the victim, Dr. Olga Kalugin gave the usual details of sex, height,
age, weight, and clinical morphology, then summed up: “We assume the bullet
to the spine came first. Those to the head were likewise fatal but unnecessary.”
She paused, then added: “The last shots were from a firearm held against
the deceased man’s head by a killer who wanted to be very close to his
victim.”
Dr. Kalugin hesitated. Not one to waste words, she added a final clipped
assessment. “The murder was premeditated, deliberate, sadistic . . . This
murderer thoroughly enjoyed himself. He was also so close that blood and
bone fragments must have exploded back on him.”
About the Author
After studying at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Forrester
went on to form several companies. He has traveled widely in China; the
former USSR, including ancient cities like Bukhara, Tashkent, and Samarkand;
to Australia and New Zealand several times; and to many other countries.
He has held elective office on both Greensboro's City Council and the Guilford
County Board of Commissioners. Now retired, Forrester writes, golfs, bikes,
and paints.
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