Operation Blackbird — Ellen Butler

Her mission could tip the balance of power…or spark World War III. October, 1952. The war is over, but for CIA officer Miriam Becker, memories of the horrors she witnessed remain jagged in her mind. While vacationing in Argentina, recovering from a mission that nearly killed her, she's seeing more ghosts from the past than the sights. When a longtime family friend and fellow operative, Jake Devlin, tracks her down, Miriam is forced to push everything to the back of her mind for the next mission: help a highly prized and heavily guarded rocket scientist defect from Soviet-controlled East Berlin—right out from under the KGB's nose. Well aware that one wrong move could spark World War III, Miriam, Jake, and the team plan their strategy to the last detail. But when a betrayal brings everything crashing down, Jake's quick thinking creates the diversion to get Miriam out alive—but leaves him trapped behind the Iron Curtain. Unsure of whom she can trust, Miriam must complete the mission by relying on contacts outside of the agency, even though her heart longs to return to East Berlin to rescue the man who is the last link to her troubled past … before the KGB gets to him first. A companion to the internationally bestselling novel, The Brass Compass, Operation Blackbird takes the reader on a spy adventure from South America to Europe during a time when the yoke of Communism is tightening the reins on an unwilling people.