Ted Allbeury's latest novel tackles the potentially explosive topic of MK Ultra, the most secret operation in the CIA. MK Ultra is concerned with the use of mind-control under the influence of hypnosis and, sometimes, drugs. The problems started when the CIA ruled out the use of volunteers in these experiments because volunteers would give a false picture of the effects of the drug and could distort the effects of the hypnosis. As always, Allbeury uses the facts splendidly in his novel, which tells of the disturbing, terrifying and sometimes tragic human consequences of these experiments. His hero, Senator Joe Maguire, is a fundamentally decent man whose unenviable task it is to monitor the goings-on of MK Ultra and to pick up the pieces when things go horribly wrong. As they do. THE ASSETS raises disturbing issues and ethical dilemmas to which there are no easy answers.