Nobody is ever above suspicion in the 'wilderness of mirrors' that is the world of intelligence, but when a senior officer goes bad it still hurts. With the security of Britain's most secret computer system at stake, a deception operation is set in train to flush out the traitor. Paul Richter, an unemployed ex-Naval aviator, is the unwitting and ultimately expendable bait in the trap. But as the net closes around the traitor in France, a female Russian intelligence officer flees Moscow and the evidence she brings points the finger of suspicion in a very different direction.