The Living Daylights [AKA Berlin Escape] (James Bond #15)

"The Living Daylights" takes place in, what is for Fleming, a new kind of locale: the border territory that divides East and West Berlin. Bond's target is one of Fleming's most tantalizing villains, a person whom Bond, and the reader, glimpses but never meets. M. sends Bond to West Berlin to safeguard the escape of Number 272, a British agent who is privy to Russia's top-secret atomic plans. Agent 272 is to make his break for freedom across the East Berlin frontier. The big trouble is: the KGB knows the escape plan and that plan cannot be changed. They have assigned their best sniper, Trigger, to shoot 272 on the run, on a certain street, at a certain time. Armed with a .308-caliber International Experimental Target rifle, Bond must stake out the sniper and kill him before he kills 272....