A Nastia Game

What links the Royal Air Force, the Iraq-Iran War, the game of chess, and the invasion of Iraq in 2003? The answer is A Nastia Game, a computer war game devised by the RAF as a staff training exercise in the 1970s, and sold to Iraq shortly before the Iran-Iraq war.

Squadron Leader James Douglas is the software specialist developing A Nastia Game for Iraq, and his interest in the game is heightened when he meets the female Iraqi officer assigned to the project ? the stunning Kathab al Jised, known as Kate. James?s settled life with his wife and family in England is put on hold when he travels to Baghdad to train Iraqi officers in the war game. When an attempt is made to breach the game?s unique security system ? designed by James and based on a secret chess code ? everyone connected to the game is immediately plunged into danger.

With MI6 and the Iraqi secret service playing a high-stakes game of bluff and double-bluff, James and Kate must decide where their loyalties lie. A tale of passion, suspicion and deception that sheds remarkable new light on the West?s relationship with Iraq.