The Sandbaggers

Norway's secret service appeals to Burnside for help when one of their aircraft crashes in Russia. However, their impatience with Burnside's insistence on planning leads to the CIA's involvement and the near capture of Burnside's men.

A top government official should be in Scotland but is discovered in Vienna, and a British journalist is executed in East Africa. Burnside starts to play a double game, but there are others who are just as good at that - and in much higher places.

No operation that infringes on the sovereignty of another nation is to be mounted without the personal approval of the prime minister. It's one thing for Burnside to break that rule, but quite another to be caught.

There has never been a woman in SIS's special operations section, but with only one Sandbagger left, Burnside is in a crisis situation. The training school can offer no one - except the enigmatic Laura Dickens.

Burnside finds himself faced with more problems than usual when a Russian ship may not be what it seems. Meanwhile, an Arab prince plots to overthrow his father, and a Sandbagger wants to leave the section.

Burnside sends Caine off to Cyprus to investigate a mysterious disappearance and makes a few enquiries of his own - into Sandbagger Laura Dickens.

In Burnside's game, there has always been a clash between professional and personal priorities. But with Burnside in love and Laura in danger, the clash becomes a head-on collision.