by 
EXFIL
A thriller by Alan Reynolds
Know More
April 2006, the height of the Iranian nuclear crisis. The Iranian secret police, with its thirty thousand agents, spies and informants, are everywhere. Relations between Iran and most of the rest of world are low; the Americans, with their itchy trigger fingers, are unpredictable.
Against this backdrop, a cleaner at the British Embassy compound slips a piece of paper to the wife of the Cultural Attaché. The cleaner’s husband is one of Iran’s leading nuclear scientists and he wants to defect to the UK. The message reaches MI6 headquarters in London; urgent high-level meetings take place. Is it authentic or are the Iranians playing games? Is it even feasible? Agent Nick Houghton is sent to Tehran to investigate.
A nail-biting thriller which will have readers flicking through the pages as the story reaches its gripping conclusion.
A Word from the Author
The word ‘Exfil’ is a military term, short for ‘exfiltration’ – the opposite of ‘infiltration’.
The story was inspired around news items covering the tensions between Iran and the USA over the former’s nuclear ambitions. This is a continuing saga which came to prominence in 2006 when the then president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, announced that Iran was a nuclear power and the world had better get used to it.
Imagine then the furore if one of their top scientists wanted to defect at that time.
April 2006, and one of the embassy compound cleaners surreptitiously passes a slip of paper to the wife of the Commercial Attaché. Her husband reads the note on return from the embassy and straightaway recognises its significance. The cleaner’s husband is indeed one of Iran’s top nuclear scientists. The note is sent to MI6 Headquarters in London and the decision is made to send an agent, Nick Houghton, to Tehran to see if such a project can succeed.
What follows is a cat and mouse game with MOIS, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and their thirty thousand spies and agents. A gripping story which will have readers flicking pages to see what happens next as Houghton battles against the odds as he tries to make the escape a reality.
(Alan Reynolds, October 2019)