Agent Counter-Agent (Killmaster novel)

Agent Counter-Agent is the seventy-eighth novel in the Nick Carter-Killmaster series of spy novels.,^[1][2] Carter is a US secret agent, code-named N-3, with the rank of Killmaster. He works for AXE – a secret arm of the US intelligence services.

Publishing history

The book was first published in 1973 by Award-Tandem Books (Number AN1147) by Universal Publishing and Distributing Corporation (New York, USA) and Universal-Tandem Publishing Co. Ltd. (London, England). The novel was written by Ralph Eugene Hayes.,^[3][4] Copyright was registered on 15 July 1973.^[5]

Tagline

There is no tagline on the US 1st edition

Plot summary

The story is set in April, presumably in 1973.

A threat is made to assassinate the Vice President of the United States and the President of Venezuela at an upcoming forum in Caracas. Carter is sent to investigate. Posing as US embassy staff, Carter observes the security arrangements for the conference. He meets Ilse Hoffmann from the West German embassy in Caracas. Hoffmann is really a Russian scientist, Dr Tanya Savitch, working with the KGB who drugs and captures Carter. Carter is taken to a secret KGB laboratory in Caracas run by Oleg Dimitrov. There Carter is subjected to drug-induced mind control experiments by Savitch and her boss, Dr Anton Kalinin.

Carter is brainwashed into believing he is Rafael Chavez, a Venezuelan revolutionary, whose mission is to assassinate the President of Venezuela and the Vice President of the United States during the conference. However, when Carter is released and goes about his normal duties before the conference he has troubling flashbacks of his real identity. His odd behavior arouses the suspicions of David Hawk and Clay Vincent, a fellow AXE agent. Carter stabs Vincent and ties up Hawk so that he can complete his mission.

Carter is handed a water jug containing a concealed high-frequency transmitter that is capable of destroying central nervous tissue and places it in the conference room. The device will be remotely activated by another confederate.

The low frequency roar of overhead jets brings Carter to his senses. He remembers who he is and what he has done. He forces his way into the conference room. The ultrasonic transmitter activates but causes only minor injuries before Carter destroys it.

Carter searches Caracas for Tanya Savitch. He finds her and forces her to take him back to the secret KGB laboratory. The laboratory is being dismantled. Carter kills a technician and Kalinin. Tanya Savitch wounds Carter and he shoots and kills her. Oleg Dimitrov escapes and heads to the airport. Carter chases him and kills him in the airport washroom.

Main characters

• Nick Carter – agent N-3, AXE (posing as Scott Matthews – US embassy staff)
• David Hawk – AXE Chief, Carter’s boss
• Dr Tanya Savitch – Russian scientist, posing as Ilse Hoffmann (West German embassy staff)
• Dr Anton Kalinin – Russian scientist
• Oleg Dimitrov – KGB agent, Caracas
• Clay Vincent – AXE agent, N7

Other information

• The book contains 3 maps (United States, South America, Caracas street plan)
• The story is set in Holy Week, which in 1973 was 15–21 April.^[6]
• On the front cover (US 1st edition) it states “Over 13,000,000 Nick Carter books in print!”
• The novel is written in First-person narrative style
• The US Vice President in April 1973 was Spiro Agnew. Although the story does not name Agnew, it refers to the Vice President's height (Agnew was 6’2”)^[7] and his dark-haired wife,^[8] (Chapter 2).
• The President of Venezuela in 1973 was Rafael Caldera Rodríguez
• A KGB agent is described as a “Mokri Dela man”. Mokri Dela (also spelled mokri dela / mokrie dela / Mokryye Dela) is Russian / KGB slang for “wet work / wet operations / liquid affairs”, i.e. murders, kidnappings, and sabotage involving bloodshed,^{[9][10][11][12][13][14]}
• The cover (US 1st edition) shows Carter killing Tanya Savitch in the secret KGB laboratory (Chapter 12)
• The back cover (US 1st edition) prominently displays the phrase We will bury you!, the famous remark attributed to Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, but which is not actually referenced or used in the book.

Errors

• Chapter 1. Colt Cobra .38 Special is stated to be an automatic – it is a revolver

References

1. ↑ http://www.fictiondb.com/author/nick-carter~series~killmaster~4993.htm
2. ↑ http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/nick-carter/
3. ↑ Serial Vigilantes of Paperback Fiction: An Encyclopedia from Able Team to Z-Comm. Bradley Mengel. 2009. ISBN 978-0-7864-4165-5
4. ↑ http://www.spyguysandgals.com/sgShowAuthor.asp?ScanAuthor=Powell_Larry
5. ↑ Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series: 1973: July–December, Book 1973. Library of Congress. Copyright Office, p2832.
6. ↑ http://www.maa.mhn.de/StarDate/publ_holidays.html
7. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0013152/bio
8. ↑ Second Lady of the United States#/media/File:Mrs. Agnew.tif
9. ↑ CIA. Soviet Use of Assassination and Kidnapping. Center for the Study of Intelligence. Studies Archive Indexes. Vol. 19. No. 3.
10. ↑ Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones. The CIA and American Democracy. Yale University Press.p96
11. ↑ Tom Clancy. Net Force. Chapter 1. Penguin.
12. ↑ Clandestine HUMINT operational techniques
13. ↑ http://fas.org/irp/world/russia/kgb/su0521.htm
14. ↑ http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/19/messages/445.html