The Red Dove

The Red Dove
Derek Lambert

A classic Cold War spy story about the space race from the bestselling thriller writer Derek Lambert.

As the Soviet space-shuttle Dove orbits 150 miles above the earth on its maiden flight, Warsaw Pact troops crash into Poland.

The seventy-two-year-old President of America wants to be re-elected, and for that he needs to win the first stage of the war in space: he needs to capture the Soviet space shuttle. But as the President plans his coup a nuclear-armed shuttle speeds towards target America – and only defection in space can stop it.

‘Writing as crisp as the Moscow winter … the Soviet setting is magically evocative’

New York Times

‘Lambert, author of many intelligent political thrillers, has another in this fastpaced, complex, and timely novel. Highly recommended’

Library Journal

‘A most satisfying thriller with a highly dramatic finish’

Publishers Weekly

THE RED DOVE

Derek Lambert

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_264d2ec1-90f1-55bc-87cb-15c019b745f1)

Collins Crime Club

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by Hamish Hamilton Ltd 1982

Copyright © Derek Lambert 1982

Design and illustration by Micaela Alcaino © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018

Cover photographs © Shutterstock.com

Derek Lambert asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780008268428

Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2018 ISBN: 9780008268411

Version: 2017-12-20

RED ALERT!

Dove lurched violently to one side when it was seventy-five miles above the earth.

A beam weapon, Talin guessed, gripping the hand controller. Not a direct hit but it must have passed within a few feet of the fuselage.

Dove began to turn on her side, shuddering.

Talin fought the manual controls. Dove settled again, then suddenly dipped her nose.

Talin pulled, coaxed, shouted; but his arms were as heavy as lead as the earth pulled at them and his reactions were as slow as a drunk’s. Gradually Dove raised her beautiful, aristocratic nose. And it was then that Talin noticed that the red light beside the unconscious body of Sedov was glowing red. The bomb in the cargo bay must have been primed by shock waves from the beam.

Down plunged the Dove. With enough nuclear power inside her, Talin thought, to devastate a city. His brain froze. His head slumped forward …

DEDICATION (#ulink_ee2b5949-eff9-552a-95d3-6a51a185cdd1)

For Frank and Marsha Taylor,

friends and advisers

EPIGRAPH (#ulink_f26775e9-a109-5f5a-8dcc-d7e8a8cee318)

The dove descending breaks the air

With flame of incandescent terror.

T. S. Eliot (1888–1965)

CONTENTS

Cover (#u7e91c323-b6e8-50e3-b69b-0af8a46b0f28)

Title Page (#ud9617b11-5014-5c7c-8706-3ab2b204bcc4)

Copyright (#ulink_76f94365-699a-5e59-98f5-89e7fa813569)

Dedication (#ulink_a69c491d-8a61-5b21-8662-7ad92936c306)

Epigraph (#ulink_79c234ab-c8a5-5f0a-a394-e4af3e81a823)

Part One: Scenario (#ulink_25469046-dd19-55b0-a629-504a9f977cc6)