I was dubious when a friend passed this novel on to me. Tom Clancy's "Op Center" series was a big disappointment, and I figured that the "Covert One" series would be the same - an effort to sell inferior novels written by second rate authors by cashing in on a "big name" author on the cover who probably did no more than provide an outline and possibly some technical advice to the writer who actually did the grunt work. What a surprise - I was hooked from page one and the action never let up. In fact, I was motivated to order the rest of the "Covert One" books after finishing this one. Hopefully, the rest of them will live up to the standard of "The Moscow Vector".