NEWS FLASH: Spy Spots Ominous New Russian Submarine--NATO is disconcerted---The Canadian Counters---Doomsday Clock Inches Perilously Closer to Midnight!The story, whose core facts are true, begins when a spy, code-named Red Cross, spots the Victor III submarine in Polyarny (Russia) in 1979. Its novel design features a large, ominous pod mounted at its stern. The pod, plus several other factors, lead Red Cross to infer that the submarine is as stealthy as American boats and, therefore, a threat to NATO defenses. Amid the tense Cold War, this is highly unsettling news because it presages destabilization of the Arms Race. The Victor III, captained by the hapless Arkady Rykov, has been sent on a secret mission by an aging Russian Admiral, intent on disrupting world politics. Red Cross and his dissident cohorts smuggle a description of The Victor III to The Canadian, a shadowy businessman from Helsinki, who alerts NATO. The news sends tremors throughout the organization. Is the pod Russia's new "first-strike" nuclear weapon? To answer that question, The Canadian, a talented female NATO encryption analyst, Defense Intelligence Agencies, and several U.S. Navy submarine crews undertake to find it in the Barents Sea and learn about its technology before it completes its mission. Their quest takes them from Belgium to America, Finland, Norway, and ultimately, to Paradise. Amid the tense search, The Canadian and the NATO analyst become romantically involved but complications arise, which leads to a wild and improbable conclusion.