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A tense, complex, and twisting diplomatic thriller in which one woman must choose between morality and compromise - and in either case, the consequences may be deadly. Katarina "Kate" Wallander is a second-generation Foreign Service officer, recently assigned to Kyrgyzstan. She's not there by chance. Kate is a Foreign Service brat who attended high school in the region; her uncle is the U.S. ambassador to the country, and he pulled a few strings to get her assigned to his mission. U.S.-Kyrgyz relations are at a critical juncture. U.S. authorities have been negotiating with the Kyrgyz president on the lease of a massive airbase that would significantly expand the American footprint in Central Asia and could tip the scale in "the Great Game," the competition among Russia, China, and the United States for influence in the region. The negotiations are controversial in the United States because of the Kyrgyz regime's abysmal human-rights record. The fate of the airbase is balanced on a razor's edge. Amid these events, Kate's uncle assigns her to infiltrate an underground democracy movement that has been sabotaging Kyrgyz security services and regime supporters. Washington has taken an interest in the movement, her uncle conveys, and may find it worth supporting if they understand more about the aims and leadership. And Kate has an in - many followers of the movement were high school classmates of hers. But it soon becomes clear that nothing about Kate's mission is as it seems . . . and that she might need to lay her life on the line for what she knows is right.



About the Author

Matthew Palmer

Matthew Palmer is a twenty-five-year veteran of the U.S. Foreign Service and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, currently serving as the director for multilateral affairs in the State Department's Bureau of Asian and Pacific Affairs. Palmer has worked as a diplomat all over the world, but his ties to the Balkans are especially deep. In addition to a serving as the desk officer for rump Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) through the end of the 1999 Kosovo conflict, Palmer was posted twice to the American Embassy in Belgrade, initially as a first-tour officer at the height of the war in Bosnia and, more recently, as political counselor. In that position, he played a leading role in securing the "April 19 Agreement" that started Serbia and Kosovo down the road toward normalization. Palmer speaks fluent Serbo-Croatian, and his many experiences in the region served as inspiration for



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