The Kill Chain
James Mack

Dubrovnik, 2022: Anna Taylor, an MI5 Agent Runner, follows a target as part of a surveillance operation. She deliberately steers her team in the wrong direction and in the chaos, continues to follow the target alone, closing in on him in a secluded corner of the shore. Anna confronts the target and shocks him when she produces a pistol with a suppressor and shoots the man dead. The man is her husband, Lawrence.

Kaliningrad, Russia, six months earlier: A team of British special forces carrying out a secret operation to snatch a Russian GRU general are ambushed and murdered, their bodies spirited out to sea and disposed of, leaving no trace of what happened. In the UK, when no answers to the commandos’ disappearance are forthcoming, a senior MI6 officer, David Beaton, reaches out to friend and former military intelligence operator, Brock, to investigate on his behalf. When Brock connects with a Lithuanian intelligence officer, Jolanta, she informs him of the presence of a high-level Russian Asset in the UK code-named NOMAD.

In Russia, Major General Viktor Fedorov of the GRU is the individual behind the killing of the special forces as part of a covert operation to push the Kremlin into committing to recover former Russian territories. With the build-up of Russian forces on the border with Ukraine, Fedorov increases the tempo of his operation, luring and orchestrating British special forces’ incursions into Russian and Belarus territory and exploiting the killings and transgressions to anger the Russian people and push the Kremlin for assertive action. Which eventually drives the Kremlin to move forward with the invasion of Ukraine.

In the UK, a small team of special forces operators come together as REDKNIFE. REDKNIFE is a secret unit, formed only in times of extreme necessity, and completely outside of formal military command or control. The REDKNIFE team begin tracking down who was responsible for the murder of their fellow commandos in Kaliningrad. When they identify that Brock is leading an investigation, they join forces as they continue the hunt for those responsible. Brock’s friend, David Beaton, is killed by a team of Russian operatives in London, galvanising Brock into bringing those behind the killing to justice.

As the list of suspects narrows, the team discovers Lawrence Taylor has been secretly recording Anna’s computer activity and when Lawrence evades the REDKNIFE surveillance and runs, the team know they have found NOMAD. With Lawrence in the wind, REDKNIFE identify another individual responsible for the deaths of the commandos and other special forces soldiers; Vasily Orlov, Fedorov’s protégé and veteran GRU operative. REDKNIFE intercept one of Orlov’s operations in Tallinn and abduct and interrogate him. The interrogation is interrupted by teams of GRU descending on the location and the REDKNIFE team find themselves in a desperate fight to escape, with Jolanta being killed in the process.

In Dubrovnik, Anna Taylor follows and kills her husband and returns to the surveillance team, claiming she couldn’t find him. She later meets in secret with Fedorov, her handler, who tells Anna that Lawrence’s body will be found and the narrative constructed to show that he was killed by his Russian masters. When the REDKNIFE team learn of Lawrence’s death, they wind down their operation as they cannot get to Fedorov anytime soon. As Brock begins closing down his own investigation, he discovers something that shows conclusively that Lawrence Taylor could not have been NOMAD. Going back over old information, he identifies Anna Taylor as NOMAD and requests a final meeting with her, assuring her it is a matter of minor formalities for his report.

Anna is suspicious and informs Fedorov of Brock’s request and her assessment that Brock is on to her. She is provided with a meeting time and place in London where she will be given a course of action to follow. On arrival, she is shocked to meet a Russian Asset she has been running for years, and after confirming she has left no trail for Brock to trace back to Fedorov, Anna is thrown from a tenth-floor window to her death. When Brock learns of Anna’s death, he is disappointed that he and REDKNIFE did not bring her to justice, but satisfied that, finally, NOMAD is dead. Brock returns to his home in the wild, western coast of Scotland.

A British Airways flight to America. A passenger in first class enjoys a breakfast on his way to Washington. The passenger knows that the US politicians he will meet are discussing him and the type of person he is. But they will never know the real person that he is. Never know the real Sir Phillip, the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom. And a high-level Russian Asset of over twenty years: NOMAD.