Putin's
Useful Idiot
by
Kenyon Kane
Genre:
Historical Espionage, Romance
November
1984, Richard Hart lands at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport carrying
a dossier he doesn’t have security clearance to open, a map of
Moscow missing most of the street names, five ten-dollar bills
(probably dyed with invisible ink) and an American Express card.
Acting as a CIA “financial” agent, Hart must close a deal with
the KGB, rig the transaction to produce enough “black money” to
bribe KGB hard-liners to retire, and get out alive. And he only has
Colonel Putin there to help him.
PUTIN'S
USEFUL IDIOT is about Richard Hart, a self-centered materialist
living in New York City married to a woman half his age, dining out
every night at fancy restaurants and spending his weekends shopping
with his wife at expensive stores like Bergdorf-Goodman, Henri
Bendel, and Gucci. Forced to take an assignment to Moscow, he winds
up in an environment where money is worthless because there is
nothing to buy, food is scarce and for the most part terrible and
even drinking water is impossible to find at times. As he adjusts to
his new environment, he comes to find that his materialistic
viewpoint is selfish, and in fact unnecessary to his happiness, and
as he finds joy in the new friends and relationships he makes, he
transforms toward the collective.
But
is it all a set-up by his partner in crime V. Putin? Is he just
another Useful Idiot? As a counterpoint, while Hart is evolving in
his social views toward the collective, his Soviet counterparts
evolve toward capitalism because the free markets are coming to the
Soviet Union and everyone is going to need western currency to
survive. Inspired by true events, PUTIN'S USEFUL IDIOT is a
ride-along first person, present tense adventure jampacked with
danger, passion and humor
10 Days Before – Landing in Moscow
Hanging around the baggage claim area at the Sheremetyevo International Airport, I'm ass dragging waiting for my bags to emerge after an eighteen-hour travel day. All I want is a bed, a bottle of water and a place to smoke a Marlboro Red, but right now I can’t claim my luggage. All the carousels in the baggage claim area have broken down, and the Soviet repair crew has shut-off their power. I'm straddling a carousel because the Soviets don't provide chairs in the baggage claim area, and a carousel is the only place to sit while I wait. And there are no coin operated beverage dispensers either, like at JFK. It's solely a business trip nothing personal. I don't know anyone in Moscow, never been here before, and don't intend on staying long. My job is to close a real estate transaction with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and though I appear to be an adventurous entrepreneur carving out a space for capitalism in downtown Moscow, in fact I'm not. Instead, I'm here to produce black money and use it to bribe KGB field operatives. To do it, I've contracted with the Soviets to buy a hotel in downtown Moscow, the Pushkin Hotel, and because of who I work for the U.S. Treasury is going to issue a guaranty to Deutsche Bank my lender. Based on the Treasury Guaranty, Deutsche Bank will loan me one hundred percent of the cost of the Pushkin Hotel purchase, plus the bribes I'm paying to the KGB operatives, plus the renovation of the Pushkin Hotel to Holiday Inn standards, plus a deposit of one million dollars tax-free into my pocket.
Kenyon
Kane grew up in the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles before
there were freeways. He worked for two US Cabinet Secretaries. His
job was to complete financial transactions in the Soviet Union,
Grenada and Northern Ireland.
$50 Amazon
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