NO ADMISSION

Computer sabotage succeeds in draining tens of millions of dollars from New York's largest banks--as horrified and helpless bank managers try to stop the leak before it becomes public. Backed by shadowy foreign agents who have installed him in a squalid london basement, a brilliant young Soviet computer-programmer on an illicitly wired terminal weasels his way into Chips, the program that controls international bank balancing. But just as he comes up with the supposedly uncrackable entry code, the poor fellow realizes that he is no longer needed and is now a liability to his employers. He dies but his work lives on. Almost immediately the great American banks discover that their funds are being siphoned off at ten million dollars a time. They're close to panic. International banking systems have become totally dependent on Chips, and now the program seems to have turned on them. Terrified of a public loss of confidence and of government interference, the bankers are determined to keep the theft secret, but a British newswoman has gotten wind of the crisis and has come to New York to pry loose the story--which appears to be directly related to an imminent Russian invasion of Iran. The American genius who designed Chips is working as fast as he can to locate the leak before everything unravels--and the reporter's brother is working as fast as he can to find her before she is iced by either the Americans, the Iranians, or the Russians. But time grows short and bullets fly. . . A rich, fast-paced story that collapses distressingly in a befuddled, almost indecipherable ending. Maddening.