Vincent V. Severski: “Nieśmiertelni” (The Immortals; vol. 3 of the “Nielegalni” series)

Work

According to the publisher’s description, agents of “Agency Q” carry out an operation in Tehran intended to prevent an armed conflict that threatens to become a world war. In Stockholm, at a technical university, four people are killed; the investigation is led by Inspector Gunnar Selander with the hacker Harriet Bergnen and the head of the counterterrorism unit, Linda Lund. In Moscow a coup attempt is under way; Popovsky decides to back the conspirators and travels to Stockholm on a final mission.¹

The real background: the author

The note in this edition is the publisher’s most detailed description of the author: Vincent V. Severski is Włodzimierz Sokołowski, born on 4 October 1956 in Warsaw, a former officer of Department I of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MSW), later of the UOP and the Foreign Intelligence Agency, who left the service at his own request in 2007 with the rank of colonel. His date of birth and his service in Department I are confirmed by the IPN catalogue.^1,2

According to the IPN catalogue, from 1988 he was an operational officer at the rezidentura in Stockholm – Sweden is one of the series’ main settings.²

What is true and what is invented

The publisher’s description does not claim that the plot is based on real events. The operation in Tehran, the murders in Stockholm and the coup in Moscow are fiction.¹

According to media and secondary accounts · not confirmed by official sourcesThe author says that the places in his books are authentic because he has been to them, and that the characters often have prototypes whose lives he alters.³