A Spy Among Friends

In the wake of Kim Philby’s escape to Moscow, his closest friend in Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service ( also known as M.I.6.), Nicholas Elliott, is under investigation by Mrs. Lily Thomas from the Security Service (M.I.5).

Lily Thomas understands that Elliott is never going to divulge anything of value about what actually happened in Beirut in a conventional interrogation process.

Philby begins to understand that the KGB can never fully trust him now that he’s in Moscowand as far as they’re concerned his life as a spy for them is over.

Elliott rattles Blunt’s cage to make him panic. Elliott and Lily, now working together since she alerted him that the CIA were about to step on his toes. In Moscow, Angleton’s CIA field agents are led into a trap by Philby and killed by the KGB.

If Sir Roger Hollis is working for the Soviets, Elliott and Lily now have to assume that no one can be trusted. They must get to Blunt before anyone else to interrogate him and confirm their suspicions about Hollis.

Elliott’s four day debrief of Philby in Beirut ends with a painful personal truth for Elliott, rooted in his long and close friendship with Kim. Their final confrontation reveals the complex emotional reasons why Elliott let Philby escape.