Achilles' Heel

Ex-KGB agent Valeri Yernin, known as "The Surgeon" for the accuracy of his hits, is supposed to be dead. But at the National Security Intercept Center they identify a telephone call originating from Karachi as a 98 percent voice recognition match. A phone call in which Yernin vows to finally get even with U.S military intelligence analyst Bill Lane. The Barents Sea is Russia's graveyard for nuclear reactors. That's where a Romeo-class, diesel-electric submarine is supposed to be scuttled, but after a mysterious explosion the sub disappears without a trace, and its crew is presumed lost. Bill Lane, however, suspects that the Russian sub hasn't sunk, and he follows a trail of sub-sea anomalies all the way to the coast of Morocco. There he discovers that Yernin has been masterminding the theft of the sub, in order to use it as a bargaining chip on the black market. But Yernin is ready for him this time. He has captured Lt. Cmdr. Frances Shipley of the British Intelligence Service, planning to use her relationship with Lane against him - and he may have finally discovered Bill Lane's Achilles' heel.