Petrograd, 1916: Three British intelligence officers are tasked with proving notorious monk Grigori Rasputin is a German spy. Their investigations embroil them in one of the most infamous assassinations of the 20th Century.

SYNOPSIS:

An MI6 office boy must face questions of duty when he joins a spy and a soldier tasked with proving the infamous mystic Grigori Rasputin is a German spy. The officers are tested when they are caught up in a plot to murder the mad monk.

In 1916 Oswald Rayner’s war is unremarkable, working the cyphers at the MI6 office in Petrograd. In London, reports that Rasputin is a German spy reach the intelligence chief, C. The officers of the Petrograd office are assigned to investigate. Rayner is thrust into the world of high-stakes espionage as he searches for evidence alongside Stephen Alley, a hardened spook who’s spent his war sleuthing in the shadows, and John Scale, a soldier transferred from the front to assist.

Initial leads are encouraging. Scale discovers a potential motive as Rasputin needs Russia out of the war to preserve his favourable position alongside the royal family. Alley tracks a German spy in an attempt to interrogate him about Rasputin’s connections to Germany. Rayner struggles with his new role and fails to get any information from his friend Felix Yusupov about the source of the rumours surrounding Rasputin. Ultimately, all three leads result in dead ends. There is seemingly no clear source to the stories of Rasputin’s collaboration, and the spy Alley was hunting is killed, putting an end to any potential breakthrough.

On the brink of giving up hope, Rayner discovers Yusupov has lied about his close relationship with Rasputin. Rayner finds the resolve to confront Yusupov who reveals a plot by a number of aristocrats to remove Rasputin from power. Yusupov appeals to Rayner to help.

Scale, who as a soldier struggles with his new role as a sleuth, is transferred to a new operation in Romania. Before he leaves he tells Rayner he must do his duty, but urges him to do so in the right way. Rayner must decide how to act as he and Alley join the plotters in planning Rasputin’s murder.

Alley is absent from the assassination to silence a rogue informant who threatens to expose the British intelligence network to the Germans. Rayner must act alone. The plotters attempt to poison Rasputin but they fail. They also fail to shoot him. Rayner takes matters into his own hands by shooting Rasputin dead. He has done his duty.

As accusations circulate in the aftermath of the assassination, Alley covers for Rayner and writes to Scale that their objective has been achieved, and Rayner is seeing to loose ends. A closing montage of Rayner operating as a spook shows his transformation is complete.

DARK FORCES