Spy Story (novel)
Encyclopedia
Spy Story is a 1974 spy novel by Len Deighton
, which features minor characters from his earlier novels The IPCRESS File
, Funeral in Berlin
, Horse Under Water
, and Billion Dollar Brain
.
In common with several of his other early novels, the chapter headings have a "feature". In Spy Story these take the form of excerpts from the fictional Studies Centre's rules.
capabilities.
We also learn in passing that Armstrong is in his late 30s (thus suggesting he is not the same protagonist that appears in The IPCRESS File
and its sequels), and that he formerly worked for an unnamed intelligence organization which may well be the WOOC(P) of the earlier books - Dawlish, the head of WOOC(P) in the earlier novels, appears as a character, where it is revealed that he was Armstrong's superior. An additional character from earlier novels is Soviet KGB
Colonel Oleg Stok.
officers who have a former member of the Studies Center verify who he is before releasing him.
While they have been away on their six-week mission, the Studies Center has acquired a new boss, the abrasive American Charles Schlegel, a former Marine Corps Colonel. Foxwell and he do not get on at all well, and less so when he makes Armstrong his Personal Assistant.
Shortly after his return, Armstrong is about to leave his flat when it is ransacked by KGB Colonel Oleg Stok and two assistants, who even blow open a safe left by the previous occupant. They offer no explanation for this, leaving Armstrong yet more puzzled.
At a party at Ferdy Foxwell's palatial London house, Armstrong learns that Foxwell is close to MP
Ben Tolliver, and has even been passing him classified information. Foxwell shows him a photo of Rear-Admiral Remoziva of the Soviet Northern Fleet, who Armstrong immediately recognises as the person who had been inserted into the photographs at his old flat. Also at the party is Dawlish, the head of the intelligence organisation WOOC(P) of earlier books. We learn that Armstrong worked for Dawlish before deciding to quit intelligence work altogether. Dawlish tries to recruit him, but Armstrong turns him down.
Tolliver has a suspicious car accident returning home from Foxwell's party. Armstrong traces the woman who was reported to be with him to a small French restaurant, where he discovers photos of Remoziva and a Soviet Admiral's uniform being made. He returns to the restaurant later to discover it deserted. Breaking in, he discovers all traces of what he had earlier seen have been removed along with all paperwork.
Leaving the restaurant, he is met by a high-ranking police officer who escorts him to Battersea, from where a helicopter takes him to Heathrow Airport, from where in turn he is flown north in a small single-engine aircraft. It takes him to a remote location in the West of Scotland, where he finds Toliver and his co-conspirators. It appears that they have been running their own unauthorised intelligence operation to arrange the defection of Admiral Remoziva, who will die within a year if he does not receive treatment for his kidney condition. The plan is to meet the Admiral on the Arctic ice, and leave a corpse in his place. They had planned to keep him at Armstrong's former flat, and use the adjoining medical facility to treat his condition. Armstrong receives a message from an unidentified member of the clique advising him to leave, which he does. After a nightmare journey through a snow storm, he reaches a road, where he finds Dawlish and Schlegel waiting. They tell him that the defection is still to go ahead, though using a USN submarine instead of a British one.
Out on the Arctic ice, they make the arranged rendezvous with Remoziva's helicopter, but it turns out to contain Colonel Stok. After a brief struggle the helicopter takes off with one of Stok's men holding on to Foxwell. Armstrong grabs Foxwell's legs and is also hauled aloft. He fires at the man holding Foxwell and they both fall to the ice. He manages to lift Foxwell and staggers off to where their submarine has surfaced, but by the time he reaches it Foxwell has died.
At the end of the book it is revealed that the scheme's real intent was to discredit Remoziva and, by association, his siblings; his sister was playing a crucial part in talks to unify Germany and is forced to step down, causing the talks to collapse.
and its officers for studying likely military scenarios for the Cold War becoming a Hot War.
Ferdy is an expert games player, and usually wins out against the officers sent to play against him - a noteworthy win involves simulating the ability of Soviet amphibians to land on ice on the Bering Strait
in winter time, which extends their range and allows them to act as a deterrent to warships, which US Navy officers did not expect.
Ferdy and his programmers are also somewhat whimsical, inserting user defined error codes into the IBM's FORTRAN
compiler. An example given is "I'm only a bloody machine but I know how to print a label once only" for a specific program halt. In this way, Deighton prefigured the use of user-friendly debugging
messages for computers.
The Studies Centre does not only run real-world military strategy simulations - it also produces simulations of historical battles, for the education of military professionals. One simulation discussed is a re-run of the Battle of Britain
exploring what might have happened if the Germans had fitted drop tanks to the Luftwaffe Bf-109E-4 fighters.
Ferdy's interest in producing defeats, and his success in both historical and real-world situations produces, after only a few years, in much suspicion from his colleagues and from the Ministry. Both Patrick Armstrong and the Colonel have been called in by the Minister to investigate possible breaches in security, as Ferdy's passionate activity could be the work of the KGB for the purposes of breaking military morale, as well as learning tactical secrets useful in a possible war in the future with the Soviets.
.
Len Deighton
Leonard Cyril Deighton is a British military historian, cookery writer, and novelist. He is perhaps most famous for his spy novel The IPCRESS File, which was made into a film starring Michael Caine....
, which features minor characters from his earlier novels The IPCRESS File
The Ipcress File
The IPCRESS File was the first spy novel by Len Deighton, published in 1962.It was made into a film in 1965 produced by Harry Saltzman and directed by Sidney J. Furie, starring Michael Caine as the protagonist....
, Funeral in Berlin
Funeral in Berlin
Funeral in Berlin is a spy novel by Len Deighton.- Plot :The protagonist, who is unnamed, travels to Berlin to arrange the defection of a Soviet scientist named Semitsa, this being brokered by Johnny Vulkan of the Berlin intelligence community...
, Horse Under Water
Horse Under Water
Horse Under Water is the second of Len Deighton's spy novels featuring an anonymous British agent protagonist . It was followed by Funeral in Berlin.- Background :...
, and Billion Dollar Brain
Billion Dollar Brain
Billion Dollar Brain is a 1967 British espionage film directed by Ken Russell and based on the novel Billion-Dollar Brain by Len Deighton. The film features Michael Caine as secret agent Harry Palmer, the anti-hero protagonist of the film versions of The IPCRESS File and Funeral in Berlin...
.
In common with several of his other early novels, the chapter headings have a "feature". In Spy Story these take the form of excerpts from the fictional Studies Centre's rules.
Protagonist
As in the earlier "Unnamed hero" novels, we never learn the protagonist's real name, only that he is living under the name Pat Armstrong. Armstrong works for the Studies Center in London, where various tactical wargame scenarios are played out with computer assistance, using the latest intelligence data on Soviet electronic warfareElectronic warfare
Electronic warfare refers to any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum or directed energy to control the spectrum, attack an enemy, or impede enemy assaults via the spectrum. The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponent the advantage of, and ensure friendly...
capabilities.
We also learn in passing that Armstrong is in his late 30s (thus suggesting he is not the same protagonist that appears in The IPCRESS File
The Ipcress File
The IPCRESS File was the first spy novel by Len Deighton, published in 1962.It was made into a film in 1965 produced by Harry Saltzman and directed by Sidney J. Furie, starring Michael Caine as the protagonist....
and its sequels), and that he formerly worked for an unnamed intelligence organization which may well be the WOOC(P) of the earlier books - Dawlish, the head of WOOC(P) in the earlier novels, appears as a character, where it is revealed that he was Armstrong's superior. An additional character from earlier novels is Soviet KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
Colonel Oleg Stok.
Plot
The story opens with Armstrong and his colleague Ferdy Foxwell returning from a six-week mission aboard a nuclear submarine during which they gathered data on Soviet communications and electronic warfare techniques in the Arctic Ocean. Very well told visit to 'The Bonnet', a rural Scottish public house. Home-made ale, ginger wine, and single-malt scotch. Upon returning to London, Armstrong's car breaks down on his way home and he decides to use the phone in his old flat, for which he still has the key. He is surprised and disturbed to discover that the flat has been refurnished including photographs which he owns - but with an unknown individual replacing him in the images - and clothes identical to his own. He also discovers a door hidden in the back of the wardrobe leading into the adjoining flat, which has been fitted out as some kind of medical facility. Upon leaving the flat he is confronted by Special BranchSpecial Branch
Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security in British and Commonwealth police forces, as well as in the Royal Thai Police...
officers who have a former member of the Studies Center verify who he is before releasing him.
While they have been away on their six-week mission, the Studies Center has acquired a new boss, the abrasive American Charles Schlegel, a former Marine Corps Colonel. Foxwell and he do not get on at all well, and less so when he makes Armstrong his Personal Assistant.
Shortly after his return, Armstrong is about to leave his flat when it is ransacked by KGB Colonel Oleg Stok and two assistants, who even blow open a safe left by the previous occupant. They offer no explanation for this, leaving Armstrong yet more puzzled.
At a party at Ferdy Foxwell's palatial London house, Armstrong learns that Foxwell is close to MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
Ben Tolliver, and has even been passing him classified information. Foxwell shows him a photo of Rear-Admiral Remoziva of the Soviet Northern Fleet, who Armstrong immediately recognises as the person who had been inserted into the photographs at his old flat. Also at the party is Dawlish, the head of the intelligence organisation WOOC(P) of earlier books. We learn that Armstrong worked for Dawlish before deciding to quit intelligence work altogether. Dawlish tries to recruit him, but Armstrong turns him down.
Tolliver has a suspicious car accident returning home from Foxwell's party. Armstrong traces the woman who was reported to be with him to a small French restaurant, where he discovers photos of Remoziva and a Soviet Admiral's uniform being made. He returns to the restaurant later to discover it deserted. Breaking in, he discovers all traces of what he had earlier seen have been removed along with all paperwork.
Leaving the restaurant, he is met by a high-ranking police officer who escorts him to Battersea, from where a helicopter takes him to Heathrow Airport, from where in turn he is flown north in a small single-engine aircraft. It takes him to a remote location in the West of Scotland, where he finds Toliver and his co-conspirators. It appears that they have been running their own unauthorised intelligence operation to arrange the defection of Admiral Remoziva, who will die within a year if he does not receive treatment for his kidney condition. The plan is to meet the Admiral on the Arctic ice, and leave a corpse in his place. They had planned to keep him at Armstrong's former flat, and use the adjoining medical facility to treat his condition. Armstrong receives a message from an unidentified member of the clique advising him to leave, which he does. After a nightmare journey through a snow storm, he reaches a road, where he finds Dawlish and Schlegel waiting. They tell him that the defection is still to go ahead, though using a USN submarine instead of a British one.
Out on the Arctic ice, they make the arranged rendezvous with Remoziva's helicopter, but it turns out to contain Colonel Stok. After a brief struggle the helicopter takes off with one of Stok's men holding on to Foxwell. Armstrong grabs Foxwell's legs and is also hauled aloft. He fires at the man holding Foxwell and they both fall to the ice. He manages to lift Foxwell and staggers off to where their submarine has surfaced, but by the time he reaches it Foxwell has died.
At the end of the book it is revealed that the scheme's real intent was to discredit Remoziva and, by association, his siblings; his sister was playing a crucial part in talks to unify Germany and is forced to step down, causing the talks to collapse.
The Studies Centre
Len Deighton's fascination with military history and computers are combined in Ferdy Foxwell's Studies Centre. The Centre possesses an IBM 360 series mainframe, which is used in contract to the Ministry of DefenceMinistry of Defence (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....
and its officers for studying likely military scenarios for the Cold War becoming a Hot War.
Ferdy is an expert games player, and usually wins out against the officers sent to play against him - a noteworthy win involves simulating the ability of Soviet amphibians to land on ice on the Bering Strait
Bering Strait
The Bering Strait , known to natives as Imakpik, is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, the easternmost point of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, USA, the westernmost point of the North American continent, with latitude of about 65°40'N,...
in winter time, which extends their range and allows them to act as a deterrent to warships, which US Navy officers did not expect.
Ferdy and his programmers are also somewhat whimsical, inserting user defined error codes into the IBM's FORTRAN
Fortran
Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
compiler. An example given is "I'm only a bloody machine but I know how to print a label once only" for a specific program halt. In this way, Deighton prefigured the use of user-friendly debugging
Debugging
Debugging is a methodical process of finding and reducing the number of bugs, or defects, in a computer program or a piece of electronic hardware, thus making it behave as expected. Debugging tends to be harder when various subsystems are tightly coupled, as changes in one may cause bugs to emerge...
messages for computers.
The Studies Centre does not only run real-world military strategy simulations - it also produces simulations of historical battles, for the education of military professionals. One simulation discussed is a re-run of the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
exploring what might have happened if the Germans had fitted drop tanks to the Luftwaffe Bf-109E-4 fighters.
Ferdy's interest in producing defeats, and his success in both historical and real-world situations produces, after only a few years, in much suspicion from his colleagues and from the Ministry. Both Patrick Armstrong and the Colonel have been called in by the Minister to investigate possible breaches in security, as Ferdy's passionate activity could be the work of the KGB for the purposes of breaking military morale, as well as learning tactical secrets useful in a possible war in the future with the Soviets.
Film
A film adaptation starring Michael Petrovitch as Pat Armstrong was released in 1976, directed by Lindsay ShonteffLindsay Shonteff
Lindsay Craig Shonteff was a Canadian born film director, film producer and screenwriter who achieved fame for low budget films produced in England.-Biography:...
.