Joseph W Michels

A Bookstore in Berlin Joseph W Michels

Lt. Col. Elliott Stone of the U. S. Army, long associated with the Defense Intelligence Agency, observes what he believes to be a suspicious handover of a document while browsing in a bookstore located in an old section of Berlin. Curious, he lingers in the vicinity long enough to observe a second person perform the same indirect handover, where a document is slipped under the inside flap of a book jacket and the book returned to the shelves. Now, thoroughly suspicious, he snatches the document from its hiding place, leaves the bookstore, then finds himself suddenly and violently attacked on the street as he heads for home. After reading the document he alerts Colonel Appleton, Military Attaché at the U. S. Embassy in Berlin and Director of a secret NATO Planning Center located nearby, to the likelihood an attempt is being made to obtain highly secret intel from the Center by an unknown espionage organization. Elliott Stone is charged with assembling a small team of Delta Force operatives to assist in uncovering the elaborate espionage operation, dismantling it, then pursuing leads that will hopefully result in discovering who was behind it. The fast moving plot takes place primarily in Berlin, but towards the end the action shifts to Warsaw, Poland, then to a breakaway enclave of Moldova in eastern Europe where Elliott Stone's mission reaches a dramatic climax.