The Russia House
John le Carré
 In 1987, Bartholomew "Barley" Scott Blair, a heavy-drinking British book publisher, attends a book fair in Soviet Moscow. There, business friends cajole him into joining them on a drunken retreat to a secluded dacha in the forest near Peredelkino. When discussion turns to politics, Barley finds himself talking boldly of patriotism and courage, of a new world order, and an end to Cold War tensions. One attentive listener, Goethe, asks him privately whether he truly believes in the possibility of such a world. Barley convincingly says that he does. Months later, a beautiful Soviet woman named Katya seeks Barley out at another book fair, hoping to convince him to publish a manuscript for her friend Yakov, which is in truth details the Soviets' nuclear capabilities and atomic secrets. The manuscript has a cover letter to Barley, saying this is Yakov's way of serving his country, by hastening the day when democracy will come to the USSR. However, with Barley at home in Portugal, Katya gives the package to a sales agent with instructions to forward it to Barley. The agent reads the manuscript and recognizes its potential value. When the sales agent is unable to locate Barley, he ultimately turns the manuscript over to British authorities. MI6, specifically a section called the "Russia House", become interested in the manuscript and ask Barley to contact Yakov with a list of verifying questions in order to determine the document's authenticity. Barley is content to stay out of the matter, but the Russia House manipulates him into undertaking the mission. He grows fond of Katya, and schemes of a way to get her out of the Soviet Union. Over the course of several meetings with Katya and Yakov, Barley realizes his nervous informant is very likely under KGB scrutiny. The CIA and MI6 decide one more meeting is needed to verify the authenticity of the data, but Yakov is suddenly "hospitalized" due to purported exhaustion. In a secure phone call, Yakov tells Katya through code that he has been taken and that she is in danger. Barley and Katya realize that any further meeting is merely a KGB scheme to draw them out into the open. Barley receives a message that he must bring "a final and exhaustive" list of questions on Soviet research. He makes contact with one of his Soviet publishing associates and uses his connections in the KGB to arrange a meeting with Yakov's handlers. Although the CIA and MI6 set up a major surveillance operation of the meeting site, Barley goes missing along with the last set of questions, presumably arrested. More than a year later, after several unconfirmed sightings in Moscow, Barley shows up in Portugal, offering no explanation for his absence. Neither the CIA nor MI6 are inclined to interrogate him, reasoning that the KGB has already worn him down to get the information they needed. They are resigned to the fact that the "manuscript" had been KGB bait all along. The truth, however, is that Barley traded the questions for the freedom of Katya and her family. The philosophical Barley reasons that governments are not the only ones who can manipulate and betray, and some things are more important than the games that spies play with others' lives.