Farewell to Russia

A lake in the Soviet Union suddenly has dead fish in it.  The thing is, it is right next to a nuclear plant.  An official has called Pyotr Kirov to inform him of the situation.  The fear is that contamination could leak out of the containment lake and into the Volga.  Kirov takes it to his superior in the KGB, Grishin, who invokes General Order Number One.  The army controls the nuclear plants, and don't seem overly concerned.  They claim that the problem is a concentration of pesticide.  One of the members of the meeting claims that the west has a method of cleaning up spills like this, but it is unavailable to the Soviet Union.

Meantime in England, George Twist has just convinced the company he works for to let him travel to the Soviet Union to work on selling LNG plants.  He also convinces the board to continue investing in Sep Tech, the company that can clean up nuclear spills.

Kirov decides to enlist the aid of Comrade Irina Terekhova, a nuclear scientist, who had attended the General Order No 1 meeting, and seemed to have a dissenting opinion of what had happened at the plant.  The soviets had five months to get things cleaned up before spring arrived, bringing with it melting snows, which would flush the contamination downstream.

Terekhova discovers how the contamination could have occurred.  When she does, she tells Kirov that it could be worse than Chernobyl.  Terekhova travels with Kirov to the plant to investigate the incident.  She is there to help Kirov with the technical questions.  Kirov applies the KGB pressure.

Later, Colonel Pokrebsky, who is in charge of the army's nuclear knowledge, determines that the lake must be drained, despite it containing enough plutonium to kill millions.  The KGB is able to put a stop to that.

Twist is taken to meet the Gas Minister by Kirov.  The possibility of gas plants are offered, but hints are made about the contamination clean up technology Sep Tech has.  Kirov comes to London to put further pressure on Twist.  He is sure that he can get the technology in through Finland.  But can they get it past American trade regulations?

Author Jim Williams has written a thriller set in the dying years of the Soviet Union.  He masterfully crafts the machinations of the KGB and how they controlled so much of soviet life simply with threats and at the same time raw brutality.  The autocratic rule of the Soviet Union relied on police forces such as the KGB within and outside their country.  A good read.