A suicide at the Ministry of Defence. A hand grenade through the door of Number Ten. A Czech defector with a file worth killing for...

The whole sequence of grisly incidents points the finger at John Tyler.

Professor John Tyler. Nuclear strategist and insatiable lecher. The man who will state Britain's case when Europe's think tank on armageddon gathers in Luxembourg.

Harry Maxim - SAS major on special assignment to Downing Street - in under orders to watch Tyler's back.

The professor is a flawed man. Maxim knows just how flawed. If the KGB's specially-imported hit men don't know, they're certainly acting as if they do...