It was thought that during the height of tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States， the KGB may have cleverly smuggled a nuclear bomb into the very heart of Washington D.C. In Pete Earley s new thriller， Lethal Secrets， this bomb is in the hands of a band of Chechen rebels， lead by an insane terrorist， Movladi the Viper Islamov， who s threatening to detonate it unless his demands are met.The fate of the city rests in the hands of a disgraced deputy U.S. Marshal， Wyatt Conway， who is reluctantly called into action by his FBI and CIA rivals because he was once a friend of Islamov s， before the freedom fighter turned into an international terrorist. But to stop Islamov， Conway must trust Vladimir Khrenkov， a possibly corrupt Russian intelligence agent， and Kimberly Lodge， a skeptical CIA beauty. Conway suspects Khrenkov of being the man who executed a top Russian mobster that Conway was protecting in federal witness protection program. And the CIA s Lodge isn t all that certain Conway is capable of outwitting the terrorists and protecting the capital of the free world.With time running out， Conway must find a way to manipulate and expose Khrenkov， keep Lodge and her bureaucratic cronies off his back， and prevent Islamov from igniting the spark for Armageddon. (20041116)