Buy Reilly: Ace of Spies

Sidney Rosenblum, a Russian born Jew, is recruited by the British espionage service and on his first assignment comes up with intelligence on the Russian oil fields but also sensitive information on their heretofore unknown Persian installations. He is detained in a provincial town by a zealous police inspector but sees a chance to escape. Rosenblum fakes a romantic liaison with the beautiful wife of an aged cleric caught in a dysfunctional marriage. Rosenblum's superiors are distressed with his less than gallant tactics and Margaret Thomas, the young wife in question feels humiliated at having been used. However, Rosenblum has a score to settle. An operative of Zaharov, an influential arms dealer working for the Turks among others, murders Rosenblum's London girlfriend in his zeal to obtain the invaluable documents from her.
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Despite his personal misgivings about the destabilizing effect of a war between Russia and Japan, Reilly is pressured into helping the Japanese in launching a surprise sneak attack against Port Arthur. His chief contribution to the operation is handing over the plans of the Russian mine fields guarding the harbor. He doesn't lose the opportunity that this insider information gives him, and he capitalizes on the knowledge by acquiring large stores of cement, coal, lumber, and other indispensable war materials. The master spy also is not surprised to find out that his neglected wife Margaret has been having an affair with his subordinate Greenberg.
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In 1905 Germany, the British have two operatives planted inside a top secret German shipyard. After one of them is exposed, Reilly is sent in to replace him, but because the surviving agent is perceived as being a weak link, Reilly doesn't reveal himself to him... even though they are boarding at the same house. Reilly diverts himself by romancing his Marxisr landlord's daughter.
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Reilly returns from a failed mission to Naples to locate Australian oil developer D'Arcy and persuade him into signing a contract with Britain. He is shocked and feels betrayed when Fothergill tells him that his wife Margaret has run off with a "Bloomsbury type" and is currently in Paris as is D'Arcy, who leaves for the Riviera yacht of Baron Rothschild, who is acting as a surrogate for French government. Reilly gets his intelligence from Widdemeyer, who, when he updates him and passes along the information that Anna, tells him of the whereabouts of his half-sister Anna, a fledgling pianist and courier for Russian revolutionaries.
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Reilly, who is now estranged from British intelligence due to hard feelings as a result of the D'Arcy Affair, is now headquartered in Russia as a representative of a German ship builder interested in selling warships to Russia. Reilly immerses himself in the corrupt world of Czarist politics in order to obtain the contract including bribes and coercion and takes delight in anticipating that his business coup will embarrass Zhakarov.
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Sidney proceeds with his plan to get Count Massino of the Russian admiralty to approve a contract with the German ship factory he's representing over that of a British firm represented by rival Basil Zakharov. Not only will Sidney make a small fortune from the deal, but he will also double-cross his German employers by selling the blueprints to the English secret service for use against Germany in the impending World War. Sidney is able to bribe Massino by seducing his wife and offering to marry her after she divorces the count. Reilly plans to use the huge divorce settlement he has arranged with Massino to disguise the bribe he is paying him for the contract award. Basil tries to upset the plan by sending Margaret to St. Petersburg to embarrass Sideney ad Massimo.
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The Soviet Revolution has been a success and Russis has pulled out of the Eastern FRont as Lenin has sued for peace. Reilly, working again for the Brirish, works behind the scenes to topple the Bolsheviks and open up the second front again.
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Reilly's plan to overthrow the Bolshevik government and install himself as head of state hits a bump in the road when Lenin's intelligence chief Dzerzhinsky convinces him to postpone a strategic event where it is planned that Lenin's 'loyal' Latvian guard will turn on him. Howver, the promised 10,000 troops that the British government pledged turns out to be only 600 ans an attempt on Lenin's like leaves him seriously wounded but alive.
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After the failure of the promised Btitish troops at Archangel and the failed assassination of Lenin as well as the assassinations of the Romanoffs, Sidney's hope for political control of Russia and its vast national resources vanish, and he takes his leave of British intelligence.
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Sidney has relocated in Long Island and sells his valuable collection of Napoleana to underwrite his organization of Russian expatriates. He also wangles a commitment from Henry Ford to underwrite a German army to invade Russia a topple the precarious Bolshevik government now engaged in a civil war against the White Army. Secret police chief Dzerzhinsky has organized a supposedly anti-Communist group called the Trust, whose covert objective is to entice all anti-Communist Russians deemed dangerous by the Party to return to Russia, where they can be arrested and controlled. Many of Sidney's allies in the West including his secretary are working against him to lure him and Savinkov back into Russia in order to neutralize them.. In addition, a letter forged by Sidney leads to the fall of the then current British government.
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Dzerzhinsky's organization "The Trust" poses as an anti-Bolshevik alternative to the current Russian government, but in reality. use its western funding to control counter-Revolutionary forces both inside and out of Russia and as a source of intelligence. After Savinkov's fall from his jail cell, Western funding dries up and Dzerzhinsky guarantees Sidney his safety on Russian soil in exchange for his help in reinstating Western financial support for The Trust. The newly-married Sidney sees this as a chance to destroy The Trust and eliminate Stalin, but the dictator views The Trust s growing power as a threat to him and wants it and Sidney eliminated.
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Dzerzhinsky tries to make Sidney realize that his situation is hopeless and it is useless to resist interrogation. Characteristically Reilly does resist but is ultimately broken. A paranoid Stalin wants Sidney and everyone involved with 'The Trust' executed, but Dzerzhinsky resists. Meanwhile Cummings works for Reilly's release.
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