Based on real events, Rick Keaton, a high school senior in Cleveland, is thrust into the world of espionage by a malicious high school prank. A letter written in his name is sent to Radio Moscow and broadcast around the world. When the CIA arrives on his doorstep, he explains he didn’t send the letter. The response was shocking. “We don’t care. Would you send more letters if we told you what to write?” For the next four years, Soviet agents in America and Europe groom Rick to be a Soviet spy with recruitment trips to New York, then Paris, and eventually Moscow. Rick is drawn into the shadowy world of intelligence operations, dangles, traitors, and spies.
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A world away, Oleg Penkovsky, a disillusioned Colonel in Soviet Military Intelligence has decided to spy for the West. He becomes the most damaging spy in Soviet history and helps America come out on top in the Cuban Missile Crisis. It earned him the sobriquet “The Spy Who Saved the World” and cost him his life. Now it is time to rescue the rest of Penkovsky’s team stranded in Moscow. The only problem is how to contact them? The clock is ticking but CIA operations in Moscow have been completely shut down. The only one who can contact them is someone from outside Russia; someone who has been invited; someone like Rick.
