Denis De Luchi

Maggie and the Semi-antisemites Denis De Luchi

Publisher Marketing: Antoninus Gyro (Tony Hero), Major, USAF, is relatively happy. His wife has finally joined him in D. C., he's enjoying his day job as Chief of the Air Force Seismology Office, and he hasn't been tasked for any clandestine missions for a while. The man who gave him these missions, Pompeii Mudd, seems to have forgotten him. Or not. Mudd, who is on no organizational chart but appears to be connected to everyone, needs Tony one more time. He wants to take down a triple agent, Etel Rosenberg, who is ensconced in the Israeli Embassy. The Israelis are content to watch and wait for Rosenberg to make a mistake. Mudd isn't. Mudd devises a complicated plan to make Tony, who is privy to several Top Secret projects, a prospect for blackmail and extortion. This state has to be made known to Rosenberg. The message runs through the wife of the commander at Andrews Air Force Base and a Jewish-Italian mobster from Baltimore. It also involves, as the paramour in a staged illicit affair, Maggie Faberge. Maggie is an otherwise innocent secretary at the Naval Oceanographic Office, where Tony maintains a secure vault. Their little play leads from a reception at the Andrews Officer's Club to an apparent tryst in Saint Louis, and back to Washington. It's believable because Tony and Maggie have a history together. And Tony carries the ghost of another old flame. Amanda keeps a former hard drinker sober. Keeping him safe is the job of some highly competent bodyguards, shadows that only Tony recognizes. There's no rest for the contra-wicked.