Apparently, a few decades ago, a whole bunch of nations were trying to get the bomb, or at least weapons grade uranium, but most abandoned their efforts and shut it all down. One enterprising engineer managed to hang onto a few kilos of the stuff just in case there might be someone interested in making a covert purchase.
A CIA case officer in Peru got involved with a local, but when he came back from a trip early he found his lovely in the sack with another case officer and sought assignment far away, like Hong Kong where, with the help of a decent inheritance, went bonkers for black jack, eventually mustering out of the CIA and falling off the grid.
Not to mention that European businessmen with Iranian contracts are winding up dead.
In walks "Reza" to the US embassy in Istanbul. Says he is an officer in the Revolutionary Guard and fed up with the path his government is taking. Tells the local case officer that Iran is planning of bombing 2 Israeli embassies . . . and it happens. Months pass and the CIA's got nothing on Reza. Then Reza says that Iran is planning on taking out a CIA Chief of Station somewhere in Asia. Shortly afterwards, the Manila COS is gunned down.
By now, not only is Langley interested in Reza, but so is Ellis Shafer, a former DCI, and the most recent DCI Vinny Duto (now Senator Duto). While the suits that make all the decisions are starting to believe that maybe Reza is the real thing, Ellis and Duto, never great friends, are in agreement that Iran's involvement in the recent attacks make no sense. But Washington is feeling pulled toward war, especially when Reza says a test run is underway right now to insert fissionable material in the US, not for Iran to bomb the US, but to build a bomb inside the US to use as a deterrent against a possible US strike on Iran.
Whoever is behind it all is very good. Excellent tradecraft, smart planning, and very well funded. Shafer convinces his best muscle, John Wells, to start tracking down clues that take him from DC to Guatemala to Panama to Peru to Texas to Phuket to Istanbul. And you know that whenever Wells gets a scent, bodies start to pile up.
As usual, full disclosure: Berenson in firmly entrenched way up high in my power rotation and has been since The Faithful Spy, his first novel. He has developed Wells into one of the more compelling characters amongst modern thriller heroes and the plots are fresh and entirely believable. There are plenty of those 'seriously?' moments and hold-your-breath sequences that have become signatures of Berenson. If you miss Mitch Rapp after the untimely passing of Vince Flynn, then run, don't walk, and start in with John Wells from the beginning. You will not be disappointed. Books like this populate the alter where the MRB guys worship.
East Coast Don
Excellent story, but be prepared to immediately buy the 9th John Wells saga, because the end of this book essentially requires you to do so - and sometimes, like this, it's a good thing when the story isn't over.
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