The Fourth Protocol
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OCLC 59083636 | | |
The Fourth Protocol is a
Etymology
The title refers to the 1968
Plot
On New Year's Eve 1986, professional thief James Rawlings breaks into the apartment of a senior civil servant and inadvertently discovers stolen top secret documents. While a notorious and infamous criminal, he is patriotic enough to anonymously send the documents to MI5 so that they might locate the traitor.
In Moscow, British defector
John Preston, an ex-
As part of Plan Aurora, Soviet
One of the couriers, masquerading as a sailor, is assaulted by
In Moscow, the director of foreign operations for the KGB, General Karpov, discovers Aurora's existence. He determines that the general secretary is responsible, and blackmails Krilov into revealing the plan: in contravention of the Fourth Protocol, the component parts of a small atomic device are to be smuggled into the United Kingdom, to be assembled and exploded near RAF Bentwaters a week before the general election. Irrefutable evidence will be left that the explosion was an accidental detonation of an American tactical nuclear weapon, leading to a general wave of anti-Americanism, support for unilateral nuclear disarmament and for the only major party committed to disarmament, the Labour Party. The day after they win the election, the hard left will take over and begin to dismantle the Western alliance in Europe.
Preston attempts, albeit fruitlessly, to uncover other couriers connected to the operation. A month into the investigation, a bumbling
Preston confronts Irvine with his theory that Philby deliberately blew the operation; the latter did not know Petrofsky's location but instead sent Franz Winkler with an obviously fake identity document to the transmitter's location and ultimately, to Petrofsky. Irvine admits to sabotaging the operation by leaking disinformation through Berenson to General Karpov that they were closing in on their suspect. In turn, Karpov (and not Philby) sent Winkler, sabotaging Plan Aurora. By sending Winkler, Karpov thwarted a British publicity victory as Irvine understood the implication that Petrofsky must not be caught alive or exposed in the media. Preston, however, is disappointed that Petrofsky was killed outright rather than arrested. Irvine also admits that Philby has indeed been passing intelligence to the British embassy in Moscow (via
At the novel's end, Harcourt-Smith is turned down for the position of Director-General of MI5, owing to his poor judgment in the case, and subsequently resigns from MI5 altogether. Preston also resigns but, through Irvine, finds lucrative private-sector employment that enables him to obtain full custody of his son. Marais is taken into custody by South African intelligence and Berenson's efforts are rendered unusable to the KGB, as Irvine intends to use his own spy network and plant the suspicion that Berenson was, in fact, a double agent, so that his information will be considered suspect.
Characters
- John Preston - MI6 officer and the protagonist
- Jim Rawlings - minor antagonist who exposes the treacherous Berenson during his robbery of the victim's apartment
- Louis - a jeweller
- Kim Philby - British defector. Along with Krilov, Marchenko and a fourth individual, they make up the Albion Committee, which produces Plan Aurora
- Franz Winkler
- Comrade General Secretary of the Soviet Union
- Marchenko - Chess grandmaster and the architect of Plan Aurora
- Krilov - Nuclear physicist and artillery officer
- Brian Harcourt-Smith - Deputy Director General of MI5
- Berenson - House Owner
- General Karpov - Director of foreign operations for the KGB
- Major Valeri Petrofsky - the antagonist, who also uses the fake name James Duncan Ross in his mission in London
- Marais - Soviet false flag agent posing as a South African and a minor antagonist
- Sir Nigel Irvine
- 12 different couriers:
Adaptations
- In 1985, a home computers.
- In 1987, a film was released starring Michael Caine and Pierce Brosnan.