Along with many other things, the spy novel did not survive the end of the Cold War. There are still thrillers, of course, but it isn't the same: James Bond has become just another action hero, and John Le Carre had turned into yet another British writer who doesn't like George Bush. When communism collapsed, the dead-letter drops, the invisible ink and the microfilm concealed in hollowed-out pumpkins mostly disappeared from fiction, too.
Yet these things have not, it seems, disappeared from real life. This week the FBI arrested 10 people -- an 11th was detained in Cyprus, given bail and vanished -- who stand accused of working as "illegals" on behalf of the Russian government. Like the Kevin Costner character in the movie "No Way Out," several of them are Russians (as the Russian government has confirmed) who have lived in the United States for many years, slowly acquiring American identities. Although they kept in regular touch with their Russian bosses -- "Moscow Center" -- they have American university degrees, American professions and American children.
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