“He is”
“I’m counting on you, John. No screwups with her safety this time” They had moved into the living room at the rear of the house. Trotter’s attache case lay open on a large coffee table. He’d brought a pistol; it lay as a paperweight on a sheaf of file folders. A street map of East Berlin and its environs was spread out over half the table. “Have you had your breakfast yet, Kirk? Do you want some coffee”
“When do I go over, John” Trotter looked at him for a long moment. It had always been like this between them at the beginning of an assignment. In the old days McGarvey had thought his friend was afraid of him. He had come to learn, however, that Trotter was afraid for him.
“Tonight. “That’s a long time for me to hang out over there. The conference doesn’t start until Friday”
“Baranov flies in from Moscow on Thursday night. Eight o’clock. There’s to be a reception for him and the police chiefs at the Horst Wessel Barracks. Should break up sometime after midnight when Baranov will be taken by chauffeurdriven limousine to his own little retreat outside of Fried richshagen on the Grosser Miiggelsee. We just found out about that spot. Himmler used it during the war”
“It will be guarded, I assume”
“Heavilytrotter agreed. “But the place is very isolated. It’s possible for you to come up from the lake. A small boat will be provided on the south shore, along with the equipment you’ll be needing”
“The shoreline will be watched”
“Oxygen rebreathing gear”
“What about the weapon”
“Two actually” Trotter said, and he hesitated again. “An AK74 assault rifle with an image-intensifying scope, and a suppressed Graz Buyra”
“The boat is Russian made” McGarvey asked. Trotter nodded. “And the underwater gear” Again Trotter nodded. “Russian weapons”
McGarvey shook his head. “What about my papers” Trotter took a thick manila envelope out of his attache case, opened it, and withdrew a well-used passport. Even before he handed it over, McGarvey could see that it was a Soviet diplomatic passport. He opened it. His photograph stared up at him. His hair was cropped short, and was slightly graying, and his eyes were a deep green. His appearance had been altered only slightly, but the effect was as startling as the name. Arkady Aleksandrovich Kurshin… McGarvey looked up. Trotter handed him some letters, a few old photographs, an envelope with a few hundred rubles, a Russian-made comb, a handkerchief, and Kurshin’s redcovered KGB identification booklet. “You are putting me out on a limb”
“It’s the only way, Kirk” Trotter said. “Or at least it’s a way. No questions will be asked”
“What if I’m picked up”
“Your passport is diplomatic”
“But they will believe I am a Russian “Naturally. It would be too risky for you otherwise. Kirk, I want you to know that the need-to-know list on this operation is very small. Only half a dozen people” McGarvey laid the documents on the coffee table and went to the sideboard, on which he had spotted a bottle of cognac along with the coffee service.
He poured himself a stiff measure of the liquor, drank it down, and poured himself another. “But you ‘want me in place forty-eight hours before the hit, John” he said. “We have an apartment and even a car for you”
“Why such a long time? A lot can go wrong “We’re going to disavow you should anything go wrong. That comes from the top “
“We’ve already gone through that. Kurshin’s identification will prove to them, if I’m caught, that I was working alone. He’s beat me twice, this is a vendetta. But why do you want me in place so early”
“We don’t have approval for the operation yet, Kirk. It’s as simple and as complicated as that” McGarvey turned around. “Murphy hasn’t gone to the president yet? Or are we going to isolate the White House”
“He’s gone to the president, but he hasn’t given us the green light”
“Then we wait until then “You’re to be in place … fully in place first. He wants your situation to be completely stabilized before he gives his go-ahead”
“I don’t know”
“Yes you do. John, talk to me” Trotter shook his head. “I can think of only one reason for doing it this way. You suspect a traitor in the CIA.
Christ, it can’t be happening again. Not after all that we’ve gone through”
“He may have been there all along. We don’t know”
“At this point only the president, Murphy, and you know why I’m going in so early. But everyone else knows that I’m going in”
“You don’t have to do this … “No safety valves for getting me back across if everything blows up. I understand this. But what about afterward”
“If you get out clean, you’ll be taken care of. It’s all I can promise you”
“How will the green light be transmitted to me”
“Radio Berlin The special request show. We’ve prepared a key phrase”
“Baranov will be expecting me”
“Probably. But he won’t know where or when the attack will come”
McGarvey thought about it for a moment, weighing the pros and cons, the risks versus the benefits. He nodded. “When do I leave”
“You have a noon flight to West Berlin. You’ll take a cab across.
Makayev was driving the Indianapolis hard to the southwest toward the Strait of Sicily and the Malta Channel which would put them in the eastern Mediterranean at speeds near forty knots the submarine was noisy. But as Makayev explained, their first obligation was to get as far away from the hijack site as possible in the shortest time. Sixth Fleet Headquarters obviously knows something is wrong.
We’ve seen that from the messages they sent. They will already have instituted the first elements of their search “But they will not find anything” Kurshin replied. “On the contrary, Comrade Colonel, they will of course find the Zenzero and the auxiliary boat that we used”
“That ship is probably at the bottom of the sea by now “No matter, they will find it. But all of that will take time They cannot believe that their submarine and crew of more than a hundred twenty men has been hijacked” Dr. Velikanov had been pressed into service as cook. He had brewed some tea and made sandwiches, and was bringing them forward. He stopped short and nearly dropped the tray he was carrying at the mention of the crew. His reaction was not lost on any of them in the control room. “There was no other way, Doctor” Makayev said gently from where he stood with Fedorenko at the chart table. “They were kids, most of them”
“I know, but that is past”
“When you live close to the grave, you can’t weep for everyone”
Velikanov said, quoting an old peasant proverb. “Is that what you are saying to me, Nikolai Gerasimovich”
“Where are they, what have you done with them”
“They are mostly in their bunks” Kurshin said from where he still sat at the helm. Velikanov put the tray down. “We will come very near to Sicily. Let’s surface and take rubber rafts ashore. We can go home, leave this boat for the Americans to find”
“That’s not possible”
“You are the skipper of this vessel, Niki. Please. They were just boys.
This could start the nuclear holocaust.”
“I am not the president to give this order, Doctor”
“No” Velikanov said sharply, his voice rising. “Nor did the president give such an order. It was the KGB. You know this”