The Fox by Frederick Forsyth

Etruscan is indecipherable. Hackers do not have to decipher top secret passwords, just find out what they are, but how do they do that? Is hacking on the scale described in The Fox possible? Is anyone doing it?

Two novels by Forsyth end with a big political change:

the restoration of Tsarism in Icon;
the overthrow of Kim III in Korea in The Fox.

On the other hand, The Fox, like Wells' The Time Machine and The First Men in The Moon, ends with a return to life as normal because the Fox loses his hacking ability.

Instead of SMERSH, the Russian President now contacts a London-based billionaire who hires criminals. The climax with the elimination of the sniper and then of the Russian intelligence chief is neat.