Endgame in Berlin

A master of espionage alphabet soup, Harrington ( The Cromwell File ) dishes up not just the CIA, KGB, MI5 and M16 but the BND, DGSE, UB, GIGN and HVA. And others. The story revolves around the KGB's new way of fighting in the shadows as it tries industrial (i.e., computer) espionage. The Russian team is led by ex-Cold Warrior Kedrow and countered by preppy CIA vet Russ Tobin. Plot twists involve Kedrov's lover Mriya's attempts to get him to defect; a nasty, untrustworthy KGB backup; Tobin's urge to retire; and Soviet anti-Semitism. Two innocents working for an international computer firm are manipulated by a large cast of sometimes unsavory characters, notably a ruthless Frenchman. Harrington's writing is as smoothly cinematic as ever and there's plenty of action, some of it bloody, but the race to save chip technology seems a bit pallid after all those world-on-the-brink nail-biters from the bad old days. The epilogue is positively cozy. (Dec.)