Andropov's Cuckoo

Andropov's Cuckoo
Owen Jones

A dying man recounts the story of the most amazing person he has ever met, a brilliant, Soviet linguist whom he calls Youriko. It is a tale of love, daring-do, spies and danger set in Japan, Germany, Turkey, the USA, Canada and the UK, but mostly in the Soviet Union of the Seventies.

Two girls, born thousands of miles apart in Kazakhstan and Japan just after World War II, meet and are like peas in a pod. They also get on like sisters and keep n touch for the rest of their lives.

However, one wants to help her battle-scarred country and the other wants to leave hers for the West. They dream up a daring, dangerous plan to achieve both goals, which Andropov, the chief of the Soviet KGB, is told about. He dubs it Operation Youriko and it is set in motion, but does it have even the remotest chance of success?

Andropov’s Cuckoo is based on a ‘true story’ related to the author by one of the protagonists.

The story starts with William, an octogenarian widower, who misses his wife terribly, in a sanctuary in southern Spain. He is waiting to die and is looking forward to it in order to be reunited with his wife Youriko. He does not have long, but decides that his brave wife's story should be told, although she would not allow it when she was alive.

First we meet a Japanese family that was caught up in the blast at Hiroshima, and then we meet their daughter, Youriko, who has been radicalised against the American occupying forces.

Next we meet a Soviet, Kazakhstani family, who were also involved in the war. The wife is a government agent who stirs the workers in her area to produce more, and we meet her daughter.

Through the Japanese Communist Party visits to the area, the Russian and the Japanese families meet and get on. The girls especially. In fact, they actually look alike too.

The girls hatch a plan to switch lives, though the Japanese girl sees no future in the USSR. She wants to go to America.

The switch is made, and The Russian girl, now known as Youriko takes a job in the Japanese Foreign Office. Then she moves to the Diplomatic Corps, all the while spying for her boss Andropov, the head of the KGB.

She falls from grace when she becomes disillusioned with her work and tries to escape to see her double, who is now in Canada. She is captured and held in the dreaded Lubyanka prison, before she is given a show trial and sent to a camp.

When she gets out, Andropov takes pity on her and sets her up as the boss of a 'honey trap' spy ring. While doing this job, she falls in love with a British exchange student, and spends the rest of the book fleeing the country on horseback through the Caucasus into Turkey, where she hands herself over to the British Embassy.

After a thorough debriefing, she is allowed to remain in the UK, so she goes to surprise the love of her life during a class.

Youriko and William live a long life together in Andalusia, until she dies.

The last chapter of the book sees him dying and calling his wife's name as she stands before him welcoming him back into her arms.

The doctor is the one who finds the manuscript and gets it published.

1 ANDROPOV’S CUCKOO

A Story of Love, Intrigue and The KGB

by

1 Owen Jones

Copyright © August 14

, 2020 Owen Jones

Fuengirola, Spain.

The right of Owen Jones to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. The moral right of the author has been asserted.

In this work of fiction, the characters and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or they are used entirely fictitiously. Some places may exist, but the events are completely fictitious.

Andropov’s Cuckoo

A Story of Love, Intrigue and The KGB

By Owen Jones

Published by Megan Publishing Services

at Megan’s Market

Megan’s Market Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be copied, re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Megan Publishing Services and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

1 DEDICATION

This edition is dedicated to my wife, Pranom Jones, for making my life as easy as she can - she does a great job of it.

Karma will repay everyone in just kind.

1 INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES

Believe not in anything simply because you have heard it,

Believe not in anything simply because it was spoken and rumoured by many,

Believe not in anything simply because it was found written in your religious texts,

Believe not in anything merely on the authority of teachers and elders,

Believe not in traditions because they have been handed down for generations,

But after observation and analysis, if anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, accept it and live up to it.

Gautama Buddha

––

Great Spirit, whose voice is on the wind, hear me. Let me grow in strength and knowledge.

Make me ever behold the red and purple sunset. May my hands respect the things you have given me.

Teach me the secrets hidden under every leaf and stone, as you have taught people for ages past.

Let me use my strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy – myself.

Let me always come before you with clean hands and an open heart, that as my Earthly span fades like the sunset, my Spirit shall return to you without shame.