The Aztec

Switching between 1936 and 2004, this fiendishly plotted international thriller about missing Spanish gold is full of double agents and deception  In 1936, as General Franco's Nationalists march on Madrid in the early stages of the Spanish Civil War, the Republican government authorizes the evacuation of the country's gold reserves. 7900 crates of gold leave Cartagena for Russia—but only 7800 arrive. The hundred missing boxes, if found today, would be worth more than $200 million. In 2004, Jack Hadley, a British visiting professor at the University of Salamanca; his girlfriend, Mercedes; and the enigmatic civil servant Rosa Uribe have been arrested on drug charges in the wake of an evening's excessive partying. Hadley is facing prison, disgrace, and possibly the end of his career, until the Spanish Secret Service offer him a surprising reprieve. Hadley is about to visit Cuba to interview the reclusive revolutionary Jesús Florin—better known as the "The Aztec." The Spanish intelligence chief believes Florin knows the location of the missing gold, and coerces Hadley into his service.