Some secrets are worth dying for… The Russian Delta Two class ballistic missile submarine is the deadliest warship afloat, capable of destroying sixteen of the world’s largest cities. Captained by Comrade Yenev, the Zhukov — a recently launched prototype — is on a top-secret test run skirting Norwegian waters. But in a disastrous accident its cover is blown when an internal explosion cripples the submarine, forcing it to run ashore on Norwegian soil. Despite the Soviet’s attempts at damage limitation, intelligence services from around the world rush to the spot, all desperate to learn the secrets of its new, advanced technologies. Among the reconnaissance planes and warships, a number of dubious individuals start to appear. The crew of a British yacht, two American ‘ornithologists’, French cod fishermen and Cantonese ‘tourists’ holidaying in Norway, are just some of the suspicious character. Not only do these espionage professionals have to contend with each other, but also with the captain of the Soviet submarine — a dedicated, ruthless man who will kill to safeguard his country’s biggest secret…

For most of her crew, HMS Retaliate's Baltic cruise in 1960s is a routine one, and her sixteen nuclear missiles no more than a silent threat to the Russians. But the submarine's captain, Commander Shadde, is obsessed with the communist menace and haunted by the memory of his one act of cowardice. As the submarine approaches the end of her voyage, a letter from his wife threatening divorce pushes Shadde to the brink of madness in a vessel where nuclear war is just a button away…

Произведения, составившие сборник, написаны в жанре повести-предупреждения и посвящены самой животрепещущей проблеме современности: страшной реальности возникновения ядерного конфликта. В сборник вошли: повесть Хассо Грабнера «Операция «Норск гидро» (ГДР), роман Энтони Трю «За два часа до темноты» (Великобритания) и два произведения американских писателей — роман Мартина Кэйдина «Почти в полночь» и рассказ Конни Уиллис «Письмо от Клири»

Читайте в пятом томе приложения «ПОДВИГ» 1972 года произведения английских писателей: • повесть Нормана Льюиса «ОХОТА В ЛАГАРТЕРЕ» (Norman Lewis, A Small War Made to Order, 1966); • роман Энтони Ф. Трю «ЗА ДВА ЧАСА ДО ТЕМНОТЫ» (Antony Francis Trew, Two Hours to Darkness, 1963)