“But if it is not,” Moffitt said, “our own designers will be that much farther behind in our designs. Don’t you think you should have at least reported this finding? It would have alerted our agents that Dreamland has stepped up counter-espionage and security effects. Don’t you think that is worth a report?”
“You people don’t seem to get it. If I report this stuff as soon as it happens it makes it that much easier for Briggs and his men to hunt down the source of the leaks. I won’t jeopardize my cover or anyone else’s over something like this. I must be able to choose my own time, place and method of reporting activity and transferring information.”
“It seems you are becoming a bit squeamish, Captain James,” Moffitt said.
“You work with Harold Briggs and half the military security police breathing down your neck all day …”
“That’s enough. Both of you.”
Moffitt pressed. “I think Captain Kenneth James is becoming comfortable in his surroundings,” Moffitt said. “He makes a lot of money, he has a nice apartment, attractive American women. Could it be he does not want to risk losing his rich life for the Soviet people?” Moffitt suddenly switched to Russian. “Remember, Captain? Your people? The ones you swore to protect? The ones who gave you this mission—”
“Speak English, dammit,” Maraklov ordered. Anger and confusion were in his voice. Moffitt looked at him with some surprise.
“Is it possible,” Moffitt said in Russian, “you don’t understand what I’m saying? Or is this just a part of your little game, Comrade Maraklov—?”
“Don’t use that name. “ Maraklov lowered his voice, but the anger was in his face. “My name is Kenneth James. I’m from Rhode Island. I’m an officer in the United States Air Force—”
“You are Andrei Maraklov,” Moffitt pressed in Russian. “You are a Russian KGB deep-cover agent assigned to the top-secret Dreamland research laboratory in the United States. You—”
“I said speak English … neighbors, they could hear you—”
“Can you hear me? What are you … an American or a Russian—?”
“I don ‘t understand a goddamned word you’re saying.” He turned to Kramer. “You’d better get him out of here, Kramer, before he ruins the whole deal.”
“You can drop the act,” Moffitt said, this time in English. “This is not a test in your Connecticut Academy—”
“That is enough,” Kramer told Moffitt, on his feet now. “Stop trying to bait him — he is trained to deny any knowledge of his past.” He turned to James. “But our North American Command is concerned, Kenneth. You give them less each contact. We were ordered to investigate. An immediate face-to-face meeting was necessary—”
“Well, you’ve had it. I’ll get the information, but tell them I’m the only one who can control how and when I do it. It’s possible the level of security intervention is so high they’ll be forced to terminate the extensive searches soon. Otherwise no one will be able to get any work done. But we’ve got to take it easy. We can score a major espionage coup if we stay patient.” He did not add that it was no act, his not understanding their Russian. He really had lost it … He hadn’t quite realized it himself until now …
“We cannot afford to be patient,” Kramer said. “Our charge is to use every means to acquire this technology and build the DreamStar fighter plane. Our development of the aircraft must be parallel with the Americans’. A great deal has been invested to put you in place. For two years they’ve been patient. Now progress has stopped. Something must be done—”
“If you’re going to pressure me like this, I might as well stop everything before I’m caught. You might as well bring me in—” He shocked himself, saying it. It was the last thing he wanted.
Kramer looked at him. “An interesting suggestion.”
“What? The Command is considering bringing me in? That’s ridiculous—”
“Why?”
“It’s what they call biting off your nose to spite your face. I am in place here, Kramer. Fully in place. It would take another generation to develop another agent placed so high in the top-secret American military research organization …”
Kramer took a deep breath. “The lack of information was the last deciding factor, but the idea had started long ago—”
“What idea? What the hell is going on?”
“Our project to build our own version of the DreamStar aircraft was virtually doomed from the start. We knew about the F-15 fighter known as the Cheetah, of course — the Americans took it to the Paris Air Show. We built our own version shortly afterward, and with improvements it has become almost as formidable as the American version. But when we discovered what the Americans had planned for the next generation of fighter aircraft … no one believed that thought-controlled aircraft would become reality in his lifetime. Now suddenly the Americans had one in the air. Naturally we did everything in our power to learn about the technology, including authorizing the plan to put you in the Dreamland research area—”
“I don’t see the problem, Kramer. Everything’s going as planned.”
“Not exactly.”
Moffitt broke in. “Those big thinkers in Moscow can’t understand the data. They’ve got it piled up to their ears but can’t really decipher it. They have linguists, but the Americans use words that have no Russian equivalents. They say there are electronic parts made of atomic elements … I think that’s it … that even some of our best scientists have never heard of.
“So it takes time. In a couple of years everything they don’t understand will be commonplace. Right now they have superconducting circuitry that weighs two hundred pounds — in two years or less they’ll be putting superconductors in wristwatches—”
“Our people will not wait two years to build a thought-controlled aircraft,” Kramer said. ‘.’In two years the Americans can replace their European-based fighter force with these DreamStar aircraft. With an aircraft like DreamStar opposing our forces, our conventional-force superiority will be offset. We got them to reduce theirs and still leave us with an advantage. A plane like this DreamStar can undo all our advantages.”
“But DreamStar is still in its early research phase. It won’t be ready for production for two years. They might have a first operational unit by the year two thousand but even that’s an optimistic estimate.” He looked at Kramer. “Whoever’s feeding you or the Command this stuff is dangerous, Kramer. They’re trying to push the Kremlin into making a false move, one that could be embarrassing to the government and deadly for us.”
“What would you know about it?” Moffitt broke in. “You don’t even speak Russian any more. You’ve lost touch with your country. What would you know about what goes on in the Kremlin?”
Maraklov sidestepped the accusation to firmer ground. “I know that someone has overestimated the progress on the DreamStar project. You listen, Moffitt — this project is as much mine as it is yours. It’s my life if I get caught. I can be executed or spend the rest of my life in prison. If you get caught you pull out your diplomatic credentials and get yourself kicked out of the country. Big deal—”
“I said enough,” Kramer interjected. “Orders have already been received from Moscow. They are what prompted and justified this meeting with you. The Ramenskoye Research Center in Moscow reported that your data, although revealing, is still not sufficient for them to reconstruct the XF-34 DreamStar aircraft. It is much more than copying the design and the components — it seems they do not have the basic knowledge of the technology involved with the craft. They estimate several years before we will have the technology to duplicate the design with sufficient quality to match the present-day aircraft.” He paused, then: “The KGB has been ordered to obtain the XF-34 DreamStar aircraft from the American High Technology Advanced Weapons Center. Captain James, you are to steal DreamStar and bring it to Moscow.”