2. Peking. Meeting of State Cabinet scheduled for next week. Scheduled to attend: Chou; Chug Po; Fei Yunt-tse; Shen Yang; Jiou Ssu-kuan; An Tu; Lo Kai-teh; Yuan Tung; Sun Shih. Not scheduled to attend: Hsin Chaohua; Pu She-cheng; Tien Yat; Wu Tse-chao. (Peking Control notation: Those to attend are anti-Soviet; those uninvited are moderates. Fei, Shen, and Jiou are strongly anti-Soviet strategists and have never been invited to a top-level conference before.)
3. Hulun. 17th Chinese People’s Army Hq. Commanding General Lu Tse-shek relieved of his command and retired, age 61, replaced by General Chi Thian, 63.
4. Mongolia. Unidentified important visitor arrived Ulan Bator by plane from Peking. Spirited away incognito by motorcar into the mountains to the east.
5. Peking newspaper, Jenmin Jih Pao. Two-page 12-column biography of General Li Tu-fen, 48, Chinese People’s Air Force commanding nuclear and ICBM complexes along the Mongolian frontier.
6. Reference note from KGB File C-S-PRC-NM 647529710. Dr. Chan Po-ku. Born Chungking 1916, grad Univ. Peking, postgrad work M.I.T., junior staff Peenemünde, staff Dubna, has been instrumental in development of Chinese ICBM program. Now full professor Peking University.
7. Reference note from KGB File C-M-PRC-PA 49786119. Chi Thian. Born Shanghai 1911, joined Communist Party in China in 1927, attended Sixth Congress (1928), survived Long March (1935) and promoted to Major, fought Japanese in Manchukuo, promoted Lt. Col. & Col. (1939, 1944), assumed command of 7th Div. 4th C.P. Army as Lt. Gen. (1953, Korea), promoted to General 1961. (File note from Hanoi Controclass="underline" General Chi was principally responsible for the Chinese hijacking of Soviet aid to Hanoi in 1967–68 which forced USSR to abandon trans-China rail deliveries, and ship military aid by sea from Vladivostok to Haiphong. Chi is known as a violently partisan anti-Soviet.)
8. Lop Nor. Rail-yard watch: arrivals this week, 16 goods trains, total of 2,317 goods wagons. (File note from review officer: Cf. last week, 11 trains, 1,428 goods wagons.)
9. Siberia regional summary: Chinese espionage in and around installations of the Soviet Far Eastern Armies appears to have increased.
10. Warsaw. Chinese–U.S. talks canceled this week because Ambassador Tai En-yi has been recalled to Peking for instructions.
11. Lanchow. Arrivals by air: three lieutenant-generals, People’s Air Force (biog. summaries attached), with staffs. Arrivals by raiclass="underline" 2nd, 3rd, 5th Antiaircraft Batteries (surface-to-air missiles), 4th Brigade, 17th CPA Division; support units and infantry; two sealed goods trains; four extended-flatcar trains carrying estimated 240 SAM missiles and 16 large missiles, possibly ICBMs. Departure by raiclass="underline" 386 civilian engineers and workers, destination Shanghai redeployment depot.
He summoned his aide and Andrei came in chewing on something. Andrei snacked constantly and his waistline showed it.
Rykov said, “Come around here and look over my shoulder.”
“The red markings?”
“Yes. Do you believe in coincidences?”
“Not often.”
“Then tell me what you see.”
“One might suppose the disappearance of the rocket scientist from Peking University and the arrival of the unidentified high-level visitor at Ulan Bator are connected.”
“Why?”
“Just last week we had confirmation they’re beefing up the electronics and ICBM stations in the mountains there.”
“Which leads you to what, Andrei?”
Andrei stepped back and brooded. “I see.”
“Exactly. If they were preparing to launch their nuclear missiles they would want to have the best scientific adviser on hand at the launch site. Hence the apparent movement of Dr. Chan to Mongolia.”
“If the unidentified visitor is Chan.”
“Consider the rest. The Chinese State Cabinet has met twice in the past five months—unprecedented, when you recall the last two times the Cabinet met were in 1966 and 1970. If Peking plans to employ a first-strike ICBM force against us there would be a Cabinet reshuffling to dispense with the moderates, n’est-ce pas? We appear to be witnessing that. There would be a shift of popular emphasis from infantry and armor to air and ICBMs—we see that with the publication of a popular biography of General Li. There would be a shift of frontier commanders, drawing moderates back to the interior and replacing them with rabid anti-Russians, and we see that here with the arrival of Chi Thian at Hulun on the Siberian border. There would be a general increase in movement around nuclear and ICBM installations and we see evidence of that here—items eight and eleven. The recall of Peking’s ambassador to Warsaw could mean any number of things but it’s always possible they mean to prepare him the way the Japanese prepared their ambassador to Washington in December of 1941.”
Andrei said, “Of course there are other possible explanations for all these things.”
“Yes. We need to know more—and quickly.” Rykov swept the dispatches together and stacked them. “Have copies of my underlinings typed up and sent to Secretary Kazakov with a note of explanation.”
“Kazakov?”
“Yashin is a disbeliever and Marshal Tsvetnoy believes that in his old age he must act the part of the mellow statesman. If we’re going to persuade the troika the danger is imminent, it has to be done through Kazakov. He’s the only one whose eyes are open.”
“He doesn’t like you very much.”
“I’m not asking him to like me,” Rykov said. He watched Andrei pick up the sheaf of documents and then he said, “Where’s Leon Belsky?”
“Prague, I think. Why?”
“Find him and make contact. Tell him he’s detached from his duties. I want him here as soon as possible. By that I mean not more than twelve hours from now.”
Andrei gave him a look of brooding speculation. “Belsky. What’s he to do with China?”
“Nothing. I’m sending him to America.”
Andrei took a breath. “To Tucson?”
“Yes.”
“You’re not activating the Illegals?”
“We’ll see. For the moment I only intend to alert them. My intuition tells me we may need them without delay; I can’t have half of them off on holiday in Mexico. They’ve been rusting a long time and they’ll need stiffening. Belsky’s the best man for that, and anyhow I’ll want a line opened to Tucson, it’s a nuisance having to work through the Los Angeles rezidentsia and the FBI probably has the thing covered anyway.”
Andrei said, “If the Chinese attack the Soviet Union you’ll want the Illegals to spike America’s guns, is that it?”
“Not exactly,” Rykov said. “You forget your place, Andrei—don’t ask so many questions.”
Before dawn Rykov and Leon Belsky checked through OVIR military control at Moscow’s Sheremetevo Airport and walked out through the passenger gate into the biting wind. They had to duck their fur-hatted heads against it and lean forward as they walked. By the time they climbed the ramp of the jet Rykov’s cheeks and nose were numb with cold and his bad leg was giving him trouble.
They had no luggage other than Rykov’s attaché case. Rykov would be returning to Moscow directly from Siberia and KGB Control in Vladivostok would supply Belsky with his needs for the remainder of his journey.
Belsky made a bundle of his coat and shoved it under the seat. His face had the masked expressionlessness of a mouzhik peasant; he was a study in monochrome—brown suit, brown hair, brown eyes, brown skin. He had a slightly blurred face, the kind people seldom remembered; he reminded everyone of someone met somewhere before. In his own circle he was known as a Hundertpassler—a man of a hundred passports, his origins lost. He was a thoroughgoing professional and in many respects the best man Rykov had: he combined a vividly inventive mind with a totally responsive loyalty to Rykov. You seldom found that combination in a single individual; the imaginative ones were usually the erratic ones, and the dependable ones usually lacked sufficient inventiveness to deal with unanticipated crises. Belsky was a prize—who knew his own worth.