The surprised Karpov quietly investigates and learns about Petrofsky's unsanctioned mission - to violate the Fourth Protocol by assembling and detonating an atomic device so that it will appear to be a nuclear accident at an American base. One of Govershin's subordinates, Borisov (Ned Beatty), complains to his old friend General Karpov (Ray McAnally), about his espionage department being stripped of resources and personnel, particularly his star agent Petrofsky. Meanwhile, KGB agent Major Valeri Petrofsky (Pierce Brosnan) is sent on a mission to England personally by General Govershin (Alan North), the head of the KGB. However, Preston's unauthorized action has embarrassed the acting-Director of MI5, Brian Harcourt-Smith (Julian Glover), so as punishment for his insubordination, Preston is relegated to lowly "Airports and Ports". He reports his findings to high-ranking British Secret Service official Sir Nigel Irvine (Ian Richardson), who deals with the leak. MI5 agent John Preston (Michael Caine) breaks into the residence of British government official George Berenson on New Year's Eve and finds a number of top secret NATO files that should not have been there. One of the clauses, the Fourth Protocol, forbids the non-conventional delivery of a nuclear weapon to a target.
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Back in the U.S.S.R., Petrofsky's boss is so disgruntled, that Petrofsky and so much of his department's resources are being taken by the Chairman for his op, that he calls his old friend, the Vice Chairman of the K.G.B., to find out what's going on, because he believes that the Chairman wouldn't be able to do any of these things without his friend's input. So the man offers to let Preston find the man who is bringing in the bomb. But a man who works with Intelligence approaches Preston saying he might be right because a sleeper transmitter went active twice, once probably to alert Moscow that he is in place, and the second sent after the man's death probably to inform that the component he was delivering wasn't received. Preston now suspects that someone is bringing in parts for an atomic bomb, his superior doesn't want to let Preston be proven right, so he doesn't authorize further action and suspends Preston. Preston is informed by the pathologist that the man is not a seaman, so Preston goes through his things and finds that he was carrying something which he is told is an atomic bomb component. One day, one the couriers Petrofsky was expecting comes off of a freighter and has an accident which leaves him dead. After he conducts an operation without his superior's permission which caused his superior some embarrassment, he is reassigned to the menial task of overseeing airports and ports. John Preston is the top British spy catcher, currently at odds with his superior because he doesn't lick his boots. Chairman for a secret mission wherein he is sent to England to establish a residence near an American military base and receive various items from couriers from the U.S.S.R.
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Agent Major Valeri Petrofsky has been reassigned at the request of the K.G.B. The Russians are hoping this will shatter the "special relationship" between the two countries. John Preston is a British Agent with the task of preventing the Russians detonating a nuclear explosion next to an American base in the UK.