The Salt Lake

Geoff and Harry are two young British soldiers in the Army Intelligence Corps who have just arrived in Cyprus in 1961, expecting to have a cushy number swimming, sunbathing and examining the bird-life while occasionally inspecting the state of the barbed wire. But they are surprised to find their chief, a civilian, expects more than that. The usual secret services are disorganised by political changes, and their I-Corps colleagues are married men with families and reluctant to stay up late. At once the two are plunged into an incident that threatens the silence about the RAF's nuclear weapons on the island. There is social life, and it centres on the Garrison Theatre which puts on plays to entertain the local population, with its Turkish and Greek rivalries. The days of fighting about Cyprus independence are over, and the British role is officially about the Cold War with the Soviets, but really the threats come from the quarrelling between factions of the Arab world and its bete noir, Israel, in which Geoff's girl-friend Lucinda reveals unlikely interest. The boys get involved in some bomb attacks before Harry is injured and a civilian colleague is killed. The Army top brass is worried. In the romantic setting of the Salt Lake with its Mosque and flamingo flocks, Geoff encounters the suddenly dangerous Lucinda in what might be a show-down.