Alexander Diakim, the charismatic leader of the socialist "National Freedom Party," longs to return to his fascist-ruled homeland to organize resistance. To stop him, the organization known as Western Intelligence Liaison (WIL) orchestrates a covert operation led by Alan Curtis. Curtis identifies five operatives who could prove useful and engineers their travel to the lakeside town of Gmunden, Austria. He treats them as expendable, a label that underscores how little WIL is willing to risk, and the five are kept unaware of one another's presence.
One of the chosen is Scott Allison, an American journalist who once shared a close friendship with Diakim during their student days. Allison pays a personal visit to his old friend at his temporary headquarters, but Diakim’s aide-de-camp, Kostas, remains wary. Despite Kostas’s reservations, the meeting occurs, and Allison presses Diakim to postpone his return, though Diakim resists the plea and remains intent on his plan.
The second visitor in this covert lineup is Katina Petersen, Diakim’s ex-lover and the mother of his previously unknown son. Petersen is compelled to disclose more than she anticipated—she reveals the full history of the boy, who was adopted soon after birth and who, astonishingly, is also present among the five in Gmunden. Petersen’s revelation adds emotional weight to the political calculus, and she issues a stark warning to Diakim not to trust Curtis.
Curtis, in the meantime, tempts Diakim with a personal incentive: a chance to see his son during a cruise on the Traunsee. He tries to sway Diakim by suggesting a possible happy domestic life with Petersen and their child, but Diakim remains unmoved, focused on the political trajectory rather than the fleeting moment of reunion.
Allison has since identified the remaining two operatives in Gmunden: Charles Lord, a British civil servant who previously helped secure a government loan for Diakim’s party, and Melissa Lascade, a French assassin whose role is described as “final insurance”—to kill Diakim if other strategies fail. This revelation completes the core five, though the exact composition beyond these four is not detailed in the summary.
With these identities in hand, Curtis shifts strategy. He asks Charles Lord to visit Diakim, falsely report that the loan has been written off, and offer a sizable cash payoff—$500,000—in exchange for canceling the return. Allison then initiates contact with both Lord and Lascade, and the two agree to cooperate in thwarting Curtis’s plan. The proposed ruse involves Lord stealing the money and passing it to Lascade, who would deliberately fail in her assassination attempt. Yet Curtis uncovers the deception, and the scheme collapses as Lord is shot while trying to escape and Curtis forces Lascade to return the money.
Undeterred, Diakim decides to press ahead with his return, which leads Curtis to escalate to his final option: direct assassination. At Vienna airport, Diakim’s protective entourage blocks a clean shot from Lascade, who remains unable to complete the kill. In a dramatic turn, Curtis detonates a bomb concealed in a briefcase, killing Diakim instantly. Curtis’s henchmen quickly kill Lascade and plant the detonator on her body to lay the blame on her. As Curtis exits the scene, he is ultimately shot by [Kostas], bringing the operation to a violent close.
This tale unfolds with careful, methodical plotting and counter-plotting, painting a tense portrait of political exile, espionage, and the high price of covert warfare. The threads of personal history—Diakim’s past with Petersen, Allison’s journalism, Lord’s double-dealing, and Lascade’s lethal mission—intertwine with the surrounding political stakes, creating a web where every action carries fatal consequences and loyalties are tested against the cold logic of strategic manipulation.
