The Prisoner by Alex Berenson

Two seemingly unrelated tasks are at play. First, a Tunisian with substantial education in chemistry has been a loyal ISIS soldier for a couple years. He finagles a meeting with an ISIS honcho and convinces him that he can manufacture Sarin gas. 

Second, a simple extraction in the border between Turkey and Kush-held provinces goes wrong and two of the CIA’s best middle east operatives are ambushed. Rather than be captured and tortured, they both committed suicide. The powers that be on the seventh floor of Langley start doing some soul searching. ISIS must have a mole inside the CIA.

We all know that Guantanamo is just the most visible place for ‘detainees’ and that there are other off-book sites scattered around the globe. One is called The Castle in Bulgaria. At one time it was a castle, but it’s now one of those sites. And it’s been heavily remodeled for its current role in detaining middle east terrorists. The CIA suggested that the Bulgarians make sure that there was a prayer room in the remodel. What the Bulgarian’s didn’t tell the CIA is that they wired the place for sound to eavesdrop on conversations. And they heard a doozy. A mid-level commander in ISIS suggested that they’ve been receiving advance warning of various actions.

When you’ve been in the espionage business as long as John Wells, you develop lots of enemies and some good friends. Kirkov is the head of the Bulgarian security services and is one of John’s really good friends. He contacts Wells instead to the CIA because who knows who might receive his warning. Kirkov tells Wells and Wells contacts his former handler (and now the grandfatherly Shafer who is an annoying curmudgeon within Langley). They take this info to President ‘Vinny’ Duto (their former CIA boss) and get backhanded approval to try and set a trap to uncover the mole. Problem is no one in the CIA can know about it. No telling how high up the mole might be placed.

The trap requires some pretty sketchy undercover work by Wells. He must try to resurrect his history as an undercover agent in Al Qaeda, assume a false identity, hide in remote Pakistan, get captured by the US, undergo some rendition before getting transferred to The Castle. There he must gain the trust of the ISIS prisoner, try to wiggle some tidbit of information about the mole, alert Shafer, and then flush out the mole.

Everything comes to a head in Paris with an intricate plot developed by an previously unknown ISIS sympathizer who goes by the name of The Puma. One attack will trigger an outpouring of sympathy which will be followed by an even more devastating assault.

The book is a logical (or as logical as a thriller can be) buildup from first blood to initial awareness to plot to execution. But once Wells gets out of prison, Berenson throws the chase into overdrive by ramping up the tension and pace to a point where you might almost be breathless. I was. For my two cents, Berenson remains this is the real deal in political action thrillers. Relentless tension. Believable plot. Expert pacing. An absolute first rate espionage thriller that hits on all cylinders from first page to the light speed conclusion.

A must-read because Berenson delivers.

ECD