The Onion Files

The Onion Files is a novel set in today’s world of apprehension and anxiety fueled by terrorism. An al Qaeda group plots ruin greater than 9/11 by breaching hydroelectric dams across the US. Jim Buchan, a retired CIA director of operations and his son Mark, a computer expert, discuss one of Jim’s cases from the Cold War, code-named the Onion Files, a KGB cyber attack against the US financial system. Mark does some hacking to see if infrastructure might be at risk from terrorists. It is the early days of cyber security, few aware of the increasing use of software in critical systems. Mark discovers something that Jim recognizes from his past. The screen leads Mark to Kazim, Jim’s old nemesis from KGB days, now with bin Laden in the wilds of Afghanistan. As the al Qaeda plan for the 9/11 attack is put in place, Kazim is proud that his own steps will lead to flooding, his software taking control of hydro electric dams across the US.
Leigh, Jim’s wife, had accepted the years when Jim was on the front lines of espionage. She had followed world affairs closely, and when Jim retired she had completed her PhD, her dissertation examining a future of information sharing that she saw coming with the development of the Internet. Jim knew that with the research Leigh was doing she was more current than he was on the big issues of the world. He was proud to lean on her for his intelligence.
During the Cold War Jim met KGB General Illyich Makov at a reception during arms limitation talks, their relationship leading to a measure of mutual respect, turning to friendship. Illyich had called Jim to warn him about Kazim’s plot against the US financial system as the Soviet Union spun apart. That call led Jim to St. Petersburg, to Kazim, and to Jim being med-evaced by the KGB after being shot. Now Jim calls Illyich to enlist his help to find Kazim in time to head off his attack on the dams. And Illyich calls on still serving KGB colleagues to provide the linkages to intelligence agencies on both sides of the old Iron Curtain.
An air strike in the no-fly zone in Iraq has inadvertent consequences, setting the stage for an idealistic Iraqi-American, David, to question his heritage and his beliefs. Al Qaeda’s reach and duplicity stretch to California to ensnare David to Kazim’s cause. Kazim now has the backdoor key to software that operates dams across the country. Another al Qaeda spectacular is about to bring destruction to the nation.
Jim is sure that the only avenue to Kazim is through Russia. As Jim and Mark meet with Illyich at his home in Sochi, Russia, Mark realizes that he has met the girl of his dreams, Illyich’s granddaughter, Katrina. But Mark comes close to death as Kazim sees his plans start to unravel. Jim’s old FBI colleagues stretch their mandates for a dramatic rescue, the close call moving Mark’s and Katrina’s romance as fast as the plot itself.
Old colleagues from Jim’s spying days join the hunt. Illyich marshals Russian and Turkish agents in Europe, while an old grad school colleague of Jim’s, an Arab sheik, is able to send Jim’s message to Kazim in the ungoverned region of Afghanistan. That message lures Kazim to Istanbul where Jim and Illyich spring their trap. After a fiery engagement on the Black Sea, Kazim’s narrow escape points the way to bin Laden.
Jim’s experience, combined with Mark’s ingenuity, keeps them one step ahead of disaster, but Kazim’s onion is not easily pealed. At the eleventh hour Homeland Security issues orders to the dams and briefs the President, but Kazim has devised his software to stay one step ahead of Mark.
The Buchans’ pursuit takes them across the country, to Russia, to Sardinia, and to Istanbul. The race to the finish takes place while the Buchan family is being honored by the President, but Kazim has arranged for a different message. A Special Forces team in Afghanistan is ambushed in a valley, the enemy leaving behind only Kazim’s message to the Buchans: jihad is not over, till the next time.