Fair Game: James Watson; One-page Summary

FAIR GAME T he Steps of

Odessa

Sp ire P ubl is hing (I SBN : 1-897312 -72 -5; Pape rbac k £7 .99)

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James Watson Synopsis For 17 year old Natasha Kaltsov everything is set fair for stardom as an international soccer player – until her journalist father, Victor, is arrested by the SBU, Ukraine’s secret police, and then disappears. Neither Natasha nor her brother Lonya can escape the danger their father has put them in, with his sensational revelations about government corruption; for the ‘Presidential Tapes’ are in their safekeeping to be delivered to the world’s press in the event of his death.

From this time on, Security are on the tail of sister and brother. Natasha struggles to hold on to her footballing ambitions while being crossed at every turn by the shadow of her absent father. Into her life steps Monika, officially a tour guide for foreign visitors to Ukraine. Yet is she truly the person she claims to be and might her friendship end in Natasha’s betrayal?

Summary As Natasha’s friendship for Monika deepens, she begins to suspect that what her friend has told her about herself is a pack of lies. In truth, Monika works for State Security. Already Natasha’s ambition to be selected for the Ukraine Under-19s is imperilled: the imminent publication of her father’s investigation into government corruption coincides with his disappearance. The attention of the USB turns to Victor’s children. Meanwhile, Mykhaylo Belakin (Myk), a long-serving agent of the USB, faithful to the old Soviet, incensed at the drift of Ukraine from communism to western free-market capitalism, is planning a devastating response to what he sees as national betrayal. Thousands of protestors are converging on the Steps of Odessa to contest the human rights violations in the country and alert the G8 ministers assembled in the new Conference Centre situated beside Odessa harbour and at the foot of the steps made famous by the Eisenstein film, Battleship Potemkin. The lives of all the characters in the story converge on the Steps of Odessa. Natasha’s father is announced as arriving to speak at the mass protest on the Steps. Natasha has at last been selected to play for the Ukraine team, on home territory, against the Old Enemy, Russia. Monika’s tour party of Americans are to wind up their visit to Ukraine with a tour of the Black Sea resort. They refuse to believe that her sudden absence is explained by the rumour of her arrest. Is the Eisenstein massacre scenario on the Steps of Odessa to become a contemporary reality as Myk assembles mortar shells on a third-storey balcony overlooking the speakers’ platform at the head of the Steps; will Natasha, searching for her friend Monika, taken hostage by Myk, arrive in time to summon help for her friend and head off disaster? Fair Game is a thriller; entertaining but at the same time dealing with serious issues of human rights in a country in transition. It is a story of tested friendship and it is also a mystery – for how has the long-lost Pushkin Ring come into the possession of Monika Piak; and is Piak her real name; if not, what is her connection with the infamous family of oligarchs, Oleg Dubrovin (‘Tzar Oleg’) and his son Leo (‘Crown Prince Leo’)? On the Steps of Odessa lie the answers to these questions.

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For further author details, please see his website, Watsonworks.co.uk