约翰·柯克曾经是一名中央情报局的特工,他现在是佛罗里达州一家小型的私营情报所——国际研究集团的老板。不久前,他受一家美国电讯公司之托飞往俄罗斯,目的是查清究竟是什么人想要诈骗该公司的三亿美元投资。该公司打算用这笔钱来合作开发一套先进的通讯系统。柯克和他的助手们都是曾为中央情报局、联邦调查局或者克格勃效过力的前特工人员。他们通过在俄国的旧关系网,发现那家美国公司的合作伙伴——圣彼得堡的一家大型电讯公司已经落入某控股公司的掌握之中。这个控股公司的后台老板包括政府官员、前克格勒成员和俄国黑手党分子,他们共同精心策划了一个巧妙的方案,以骗取那家美国公司及其它西方企业的金钱和技术。柯克在调查中发现,该控股公司已成功地从加拿大某家数码和卫星通讯设备公司骗取了两千五百万美元的投资。其它受害者包括丹麦的一家移动通讯设备公司、英国一家卫星通讯公司和芬兰某光纤公司,它们的损失也达数百万美元。在秘密调查商业机密的领域中,柯克绝非形只影单。随着“冷战”结束,世界各国的情报机构都大幅裁员,成千上万的间谍们被迫“改行”:从窃取国家机 John Kirk was a former CIA agent who is now the boss of a small private intelligence unit in Florida, the International Research Group. Not long ago he was flown to Russia by a U.S. telecommunications company to find out exactly who wanted to scam the company for its $ 300 million investment. The company intends to use the money to work together to develop an advanced communications system. Kirk and his assistants are former agents who worked for the CIA, the FBI or the KGB. Through their old networks in Russia, they found that a large telecommunications company in St. Petersburg, a partner of the American company, has fallen into the grip of a holding company. Backstage owners of the holding company include government officials, ex-KGB members and Russian mafia elements who together crafted a clever scheme to defraud the money and technology of that American company and other Western businesses. Kirk found in the investigation that the holding company had successfully defrauded a total of 25 million U.S. dollars from a Canadian digital and satellite communications equipment company. Other victims include a mobile communications equipment company in Denmark, a satellite communications company in the United Kingdom and a Finnish fiber company that have lost millions of dollars. In a secret investigation of trade secrets, Kirk is not the only film. As the “Cold War” ended, intelligence agencies in various countries of the world were slashing jobs and tens of thousands of spies were forced to “divert” them from stealing state machines