The Man In The Glass Box — Peter Sasgen

CIA Special Operations Officer Clair Hayden returns in a sequel to The Blood of Lost Empires. Once again she recruits ex-Stasi colonel Max Reinmann, this time to help foil a plot to arm rebel factions fighting the Assad regime in Syria. The scheme, if successful, would not only prolong the war in that country but also subvert diplomatic efforts to end it, dragging Assad's patron, Russia, ever deeper into a Middle East quagmire. The conspiracy thrusts Hayden and Reinmann into a web of treachery and betrayal linked to the recovery of a stolen painting worth millions, and the murder of a Russian oligarch with connections to the exiled Romanov family of Tsar Nicholas II. When the Russians stumble onto the plot, they concoct a plan of their own to tie the weapons deal to the U.S. and in the bargain score a propaganda coup. As Hayden and Reinmann crisscross Europe in search of the plotters, the trail leads to a showdown with the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and an old nemesis, ex KGB agent Andrei Kozlov. Ordered by the Kremlin to kill Hayden and Reinmann, Kozlov seizes the opportunity to settle old scores. Instead, Hayden snares Kozlov and the Russians in a deadly trap that scuttles Moscow's dream of victory.