Arbat Square: A Story of Our Time

by John Halbert

Oil trader Kip Leeds goes on a dangerous journey to Africa where he comes into twenty-million dollars of "black money”. When he returns home to Texas, he is followed. In Moscow, Terenty Susiov, a rising young Soviet Military Intelligence officer, attends a secret Special Forces academy, training for an intense mission to penetrate the United States. He and his fellow officer friend become romantically involved with two cousins. As the Soviet Union implodes, the foursome become enmeshed in the tumultuous events around Arbat Square as revolution rages and Boris Yeltsin climbs onto a tank to rally the citizens. Leonid Retchko, an unprincipled former Soviet general, masterminds an international crime Cartel that supplies weapons and training to subversive and terrorist groups whose malign influence will extend all the way to the "Twin Towers" of Manhattan, USA. The Cartel's reach and power are laying the groundwork for the diplomatic, political, and military upheavals that the world now faces. This far-ranging novel of intrigue, action, adventure, and romance takes the reader into the inner workings of the "other" side—to familiar people, places and events in this fast-paced "Story of Our Time" that continues in the second volume, PLAZA MAYOR.

556 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 2013