Description:

Mikhail Filitov is a war hero and Red Army Colonel, but his CIA code name is "Cardinal." A chance encounter in a Moscow subway leads the KGB to begin a hunt--for the spy in top echelons of power. From the author of "Clear and Present Danger," "The Hunt for Red October" and "Red Storm Rising," enter a world of high-wire, high-tech international intrigue that reaches from the bloody dust of Afghanistan to the use of lasers in space. The US and the USSR are negotiating a treaty that could lead to war--or peace--while their secret espionage armies are locked in the ultimate struggle. What the Cardinal knows could change the course of history. What a maverick CIA man named Ryan must do is outduel the KGB--and bring the Cardinal out alive!

Two men possess vital information on Russia's Star Wars missile defense system.

One of them is CARDINAL -- America's highest agent in the Kremlin -- and he's about to be terminated by the KGB.

The other one is the American who can save CARDINAL and lead the world to the brink of peace . . . or war.

Here is author Tom Clancy's heart-stopping masterpiece -- a riveting novel about one of the most intriguing issues of our time.

Amazon.com Review

Two men possess vital data on Russia's Star Wars missile defense system. One of them is CARDINAL--America's highest agent in the Kremlin--and he's about to be terminated by the KGB. The other is the one American who can save CARDINAL and lead the world to the brink of peace--or war.

From Library Journal

In his fourth book, Clancy uses nuclear strategies to probe the ambiguities of fighting the good fightthe Americans vs. the Soviets. By the time familiar hero Jack Ryan steps in to investigate mysterious structures on the Soviet-Afghan border, the Soviets have struck again by zapping a satellite with a free electron laser. The title's cardinal, an elite, well-placed source in the Kremlin, leaks details of this secret activity to the United States. In the backdrop of technological bravura, spiced by artful espionage and all-too-human mistakes, intelligence is transferred back and forth and there are attacks and counterattacks. It is a mark of Clancy's growing maturity as a writer that he can bring these subtleties into highly entertaining form. Literary Guild Main. Barbara Conaty, Library of Congress
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.