Frederick Forsyth – The Fourth Protocol DON’T MISS THESE GRIPPING BOOKS BY FREDERICK FORSYTH THE DAY OF THE JACKAL THE ODESSA FILE THE DOGS OF WAR THE DEVIL’S ALTERNATIVE NO COMEBACKS THE FOURTH PROTOCOL THE NEGOTIATOR THE DECEIVER THE FIST OF GOD AND IN HARDCOVER ICON AVAILABLE WHEREVER BANTAM BOOKS ARE SOLD 1 Frederick Forsyth – The Fourth Protocol THE FOURTH PROTOCOL “Pure suspense.” —Saturday Review “Frederick Forsyth has hit the jackpot again. ... The Fourth Protocol is striking ... hard to put down. ... His grasp of the organization of various intelligence agencies is unimpeachable.” —The Wall Street Journal “The Fourth Protocol begins slowly and gently with a common jewel robbery and quickly evolves into an espionage thriller involving Great Britain, South Africa and the Soviet Union. ... As in all good spy novels there are plenty of threads that remain loose until the last 50 pages. ... Fast paced.” —Bestsellers “The Fourth Protocol is as good as anything he has done. ... Forsyth’s appeal in this kind of book goes well beyond his clockwork plots—and in The Fourth Protocol he is at the top of his form.” —Houston Chronicle “Will keep espionage fans turning the pages. ... The plotting is clever, and there is plenty of action, and a neat twist at the end.” —New Woman “Suspenseful plotting, direct and efficient writing, and detailing of everything from a safe-cracking to the smuggling of nuclear bomb components. ... The most fascinating spy novel since The Little Drummer Girl.” —The Christian Science Monitor “For sheer professionalism I give you the knowledge, invention and narrative skill of Frederick Forsyth who, ever since his The Day of the Jackal, has proved himself a master of the genre. ... In this large-scale novel of international intrigue he outdoes himself both as storyteller and in extrapolating fiction from the facts of world affairs. ... You will find it hard to stop reading once you have begun. ... His most ambitious and intricately constructed book to date. ... Forsyth has no peer.” —John Barkham Reviews “An exciting tale of espionage, filled with the sorts of twists spy-story aficionados love.” —Associated Press “Forsyth has meticulously constructed another intricate yet exciting spy novel. ... It succeeds magnificently ... as a scrupulously detailed study of spy ‘tradecraft’ and as a testament to the virtues of a well-constructed plot.” —Booklist 2 Frederick Forsyth – The Fourth Protocol “Forsyth is rather like watching a ballet. Each component—the prose, the pacing, the story, the characters—is beautiful to watch, the whole superbly executed, setting the blood running much as music does.” —Cosmopolitan “Pure Forsyth: a meticulous, detailed unraveling of a dastardly plot to send the world, or at least most of Europe, into ferment. ... Nary a reader, Forsyth veteran or otherwise, will be disappointed.” —Chicago Sun-Times “Frederick Forsyth is a giant among the creators of fictional international intrigue. ... Truly fascinating ... rousing.” —Kansas City Star “Frederick Forsyth, who once labored for the Reuters news service, burst on the thriller scene in pretty dramatic fashion a while back with his first novel The Day of the Jackal. ... Comes now The Fourth Protocol, which I’m sure Mr. Forsyth’s fans will gobble up.” —The New York Times Book Review “Vitally suspenseful. ... Forsyth not only knows how to craft a successful suspense novel—he also has a well-developed sense of the political realities of confrontation between East and West.” —Seattle Times “Damnably good reading.” —St. Petersburg Times “The plots and counterplots of The Fourth Protocol race toward each other with shrewd complexity, unfolding with the brisk, mesmerizing suspense and clockwork timing that have become Forsyth’s trademarks. ... Forsyth’s proven again he is the unsurpassed master of the countdown thriller.” —The Charlotte Observer 3 Frederick Forsyth – The Fourth Protocol Bantam Books by Frederick Forsyth Ask your bookseller for the books you have missed THE DAY OF THE JACKAL THE ODESSA FILE THE DOGS OF WAR THE DEVIL’S ALTERNATIVE NO COMEBACKS THE FOURTH PROTOCOL THE NEGOTIATOR THE DECEIVER THE FIST OF GOD 4 Frederick Forsyth – The Fourth Protocol BANTAM BOOKS NEW YORK • TORONTO • LONDON • SYDNEY • AUCKLAND 5 Frederick Forsyth – The Fourth Protocol This edition contains the complete text of the original hardcover edition. NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED. THE FOURTH PROTOCOL A Bantam Book / published by arrangement with Viking Penguin PUBLISHING HISTORY Viking edition published September 1984 Bantam Export edition / April 1985 Bantam edition / September 1985 Bantam reissue / August 1995 All rights reserved. Copyright © 1984 by Frederick Forsyth. Cover art copyright © 1995 by Bantam Books. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information address: Viking Penguin, 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014. If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.” ISBN 0-553-25113-9 Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA OPM 18 17 6 Frederick Forsyth – The Fourth Protocol For Shane Richard, aged five, without whose loving attentions this book would have been written in half the time. 7 Frederick Forsyth – The Fourth Protocol Contents PART ONE..................................................................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 1 ................................................................................................................................................. 10 Chapter 2 ................................................................................................................................................. 24 Chapter 3 ................................................................................................................................................. 33 Chapter 4 ................................................................................................................................................. 42 Chapter 5 ................................................................................................................................................. 50 Chapter 6 ................................................................................................................................................. 60 Chapter 7 ................................................................................................................................................. 71 PART TWO.................................................................................................................................................. 80 Chapter 8 ................................................................................................................................................. 81 Chapter 9 ................................................................................................................................................. 92 Chapter 10.............................................................................................................................................. 102 Chapter 11.............................................................................................................................................. 112 Chapter 12.............................................................................................................................................. 122 Chapter 13.............................................................................................................................................. 134 Chapter 14.............................................................................................................................................. 144 Chapter 15.............................................................................................................................................. 153 PART THREE............................................................................................................................................ 161 Chapter 16.............................................................................................................................................. 162 Chapter 17.............................................................................................................................................. 172 Chapter 18.............................................................................................................................................. 179 Chapter 19.............................................................................................................................................. 189 Chapter 20.............................................................................................................................................