In the late 1960s, Soviet intelligence learned that a certain set of secret documents, conventionally called “PACKET,” arrived on board merchant ships sailing under the flags of NATO member countries. According to available data, the “PACKAGE” contained an order that regulated the actions of the ship and crew in the event of a nuclear conflict. In addition, the “PACKAGE” contained a set of recommendations on how to avoid internment while in the ports of the USSR and its allies; what measures should be taken while in neutral waters when encountering Soviet submarines; probable routes of movement in the World Ocean. Finally, there was a cipher pad with NATO codes valid for a year. A separate service within the KGB, headed by Major General Karpov, was precisely looking for the “PACKET”. The thin thread to unravel this tangle was a certain Ali Mohammed, nicknamed “The Prophet,” an African, the first mate of the captain of an Italian tanker that regularly visited the ports of the Soviet Union. It was a small matter: to persuade Mohammed to make a “gesture of goodwill” - issuing a “PACKAGE”...