REACTION OF THE TIGER
by Lex Lander

WHEN A CONTRACT TO KILL BECOMES A CONTRACT TO BE KILLED

His new love, Maura, having returned to the USA*, Warner embarks on a relationship with wealthy widow Jacqui Lyndon, but the portents are not good. His failure to complete a contract for Russian Mafia boss, Maxim Maximov, and a serious dispute with Il Sindicato means he is at risk of becoming a target himself.

A surprise offer of a contract from his old employers, the British Secret Intelligence Service, offers an escape route. The target is senior SIS officer, Ivor Wharfe, who is selling intelligence secrets to the Russians, and the hit is to take place in Finland.

Unbeknown to Warner, Maximov runs his North European operations from Helskini. Not only that, he acts as a go-between for the Kremlin, running double agents in the UK. To protect a new informant he has an interest in Wharfe’s elimination, and to pressure Warner to make the hit before the end of the month, he has abducted Jacqui and is holding her prisoner in his castle, deep in the forests of Lapland, within the Arctic Circle.

To complicate matters, Maura has decided to set aside her abhorrence of Warner’s profession and revive their relationship. She flies to Finland to join him and refuses to be banished to a place of safety. As a result Warner is forced into multiple roles as protector of one woman, rescuer of another, and executioner of the traitor Wharfe, who proves to be no easy target. All this while fending off Maximov and his gang of lethal thugs.

The prospects for a happy ending have never been slimmer.

* see THE MAN WHO HUNTED HIMSELF