With the Allied invasion of Europe only days away, Flick Clairet, a steel-nerved operative in the British Army, leads a group of women into occupied France to destroy a vital German communications center. Their adversary is a ruthless Nazi intelligence officer with a talent for torture. Kate Reading`s cool narration is appropriate to a thriller involving two icy opponents. If her characterizations are lacking, the fault is not hers, but that of an author whose imagination has failed him. He takes pains to assemble a Dirty Dozen team of female agents and then renders them virtually indistinguishable from one another. That and Follet`s penchant for soap opera leave Reading, like Flick Clairet, with little choice but to simply get on with it.