1988, 1st edition (mfg. code 1-10); G.P. Putnam's Sons publishers, New York; larger hardbound in black boards with author's gilt signature embossed on cover and bold gilt lettering along spine; very good condition with unmarked pages; dust jacket very good.
Description -
The Cardinal of the Kremlin is an espionage thriller novel, written by Tom Clancy and released on May 20, 1988. A direct sequel to The Hunt for Red October (1984), it features CIA analyst Jack Ryan as he extracts CARDINAL, the agency's highest placed agent in the Soviet government who is being pursued by the KGB, as well as the Soviet intelligence agency's director.
The novel features the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a real-life missile-defense system developed by the United States during that time, and its Russian counterpart. The book debuted at number one on the New York Times bestseller list.
Plot -
For thirty years, Colonel Mikhail Semyonovich “Misha” Filitov, a personal aide to the Soviet Minister of Defense and war hero, has been passing military, technical, and political intelligence to the Central Intelligence Agency as their highest agent-in-place, codenamed CARDINAL. His latest mission concerns a Soviet ABM research project codenamed “Bright Star”, based at a secret defense installation in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.
Colonel Filitov sends Gennady Bondarenko, a Soviet colonel skilled with lasers, to Dushanbe to evaluate the facility and unwittingly procure information that Misha will then send to his CIA superiors. Unfortunately, a minor slip-up in passing Filitov’s intelligence alerts the KGB, which then aggressively pursues the couriers involved. They later become suspicious of Filitov and place him under surveillance. The courier chain having been quickly shut down by CIA station chief in Moscow, Edward Foley, Filitov’s more important intelligence on Bright Star was delayed; however, he reveals the presence of a KGB agent infiltrating Bright Star's counterpart, Tea Clipper, which alarms the CIA.
The CIA then tasks Foley with extracting CARDINAL out of the country.
However, when his wife Mary Pat, also a CIA agent, attempts to make a brush pass to Filitov, the two are arrested by the KGB.