This was nothing new to Raya. Major Abramov had come to rely on her more and more since she had been appointed to the section some years earlier. As a result, these ‘little jobs’ had arrived on her desk with increasing frequency as his confidence in her had increased.
At the age of eighteen, Raya had moved to Moscow in order to attend the university. There she had been picked out by her tutors as suitable SVR material, even before the end of her first year. All students at Russian universities were assessed by their tutors for academic progress, but also for their aptitude for employment by either the SVR or GRU — Russian military intelligence.
In Raya’s case, her tutors had been favourably impressed by her considerable skills in two areas that were crucial to SVR operations: languages and computer science. Even before she arrived in Moscow to begin her studies, she was virtually fluent in English, French and German.
A background check had revealed no apparent security problems. Her father had died in a road accident when she was still a child, while her mother lived in a small apartment near Minsk, and she had no other close living relatives. Joining the Communist Party as soon as she was old enough, Raya had been a regular attendant at its meetings and an enthusiastic member as a student.
She had been approached by the SVR midway through her second year at university, and had joined them immediately after graduation. After initial general training at one of the organization’s numerous establishments on the outskirts of Moscow, Raya had then been selected for a series of advanced computer-systems courses.
Her first posting had been to the Lubyanka, as a junior systems-security officer, and on the strength of her performance, and following a lengthy and exhaustive security check, she had then been transferred to Yasenevo as Abramov’s deputy. There she had been cleared for access to documents with classification up to Sov Sekretno, Top Secret, and given formal responsibility for computer-system maintenance and document security.
‘Of course, Major,’ Raya replied, sitting forward.
Abramov leaned across and placed two folders on Raya’s desk. She picked them up, glanced briefly at their titles, then put them down again, her full attention focusing on her superior.
‘Before we discuss these files, could I ask what progress you’ve made with the workstation upgrades?’
Like any network manager, Raya was also required to carry out periodic updating of the hardware of all computers on the network. Her current upgrade programme was fairly basic — just adding extra RAM chips to the networked machines. Although the SVR had a substantial budget, computers were still relatively expensive, and the IT section had a policy of upgrading older machines until they became technologically obsolete or simply stopped working.
‘I’ve finished most of them, Major. There’s another dozen or so still to do, but I should complete the installation by the end of this week.’
Because of the sensitivity of the data held at Yasenevo, ordinary computer technicians were not permitted to work on machines attached to the network. That meant only she or Major Abramov were allowed to handle the upgrades, which in practice meant Raya always did it.
‘Good, and now these files. As you can see, the first one orders a full security check on all files held on the system. You’ve done one before, I know, but I would like to remind you of the most important checks you should run.’
Abramov began ticking points off on his fingers. ‘You must inspect the access history of every file that’s classified Top Secret or above since the last full review. You must make a random check of one hundred files carrying a classification of Secret or lower, and check the access history of at least ten per cent of these files. You should check every officer’s password to ensure that it has been changed within the last three months, in accordance with standing orders. And,’ Abramov finished, ‘you should obviously thoroughly investigate and report on every potential security breach that you detect.’
The Russian officer smiled at Raya. ‘I know it’s boring and irritating stuff,’ he said, ‘but that’s one of the crosses we must bear. Security never sleeps, and it must be seen to be effective at all times.’
Raya smiled back at him, nodding at the adage that was quoted straight off the front cover of the security section’s handbook. In fact, Abramov was both right and wrong. She hadn’t carried out just one full security check before; since she had joined Yasenevo she had actually performed every scheduled check. Once Abramov had decided she was competent, he had delegated these, and other vital but tedious tasks, to her and then contented himself with simply reading and approving her reports. In fact, Raya was, in all but name, acting as the true Yasenevo network manager.
However, she didn’t mind that. In fact, the working relationship she enjoyed with Abramov suited her very well.
‘And the second task, Major?’ Raya asked gently.
‘Purely routine,’ Abramov replied. ‘You may perhaps remember that, shortly after you arrived here, we began receiving information from a new agent in Britain. We named this source “Gospodin” — “Mister” — and one of your first jobs here was to create a restricted-access directory in which all the source Gospodin data was stored.’
Abramov paused and looked at Raya questioningly and, as he did so, she felt a sudden chill. She remembered the incident very well, and for more than one reason. Surely not, she thought; not after all this time. Not when she was so close. She cleared her throat and gazed steadily at the officer.
‘Yes, Major, I remember it well. Is there some problem there?’
Abramov shook his head vigorously. ‘No, no,’ he said, ‘no problem at all. I just want you to repeat the process.’
‘We have a new source, then?’
‘No,’ Abramov said, ‘the new material has also been sent by source Gospodin, but it has been obtained from a new location. Gospodin is very prolific and has managed to access an entirely new database. In fact, a lot of this material has been received only over the last two months, but the operational staff here have been assessing it to ensure that it is genuine and not disinformation, or some kind of deception operation that’s been mounted against us. Yesterday I was told that the assessment is favourable, and now all the material needs to be stored on the database.’
He paused, to let her absorb this, then he continued. ‘This information Gospodin has sent has the same Top-Secret security classification as his previous material and, like that, will need to be stored in encrypted form in a restricted-access directory. Please create that directory, prepare the encryption routine, and put security protocols in place to allow access by Directorate heads only. This must be done immediately, as those files are already being prepared for uploading.’
Raya didn’t comment, other than to ask the obvious question. ‘And the name of this directory, sir?’
‘Zakoulok,’ Abramov replied, and, with a final smile, stood up and left her office.
Raya watched the door close behind him, then reached down to open the bottom drawer of her desk. She pulled out a large loose-leaf book and opened it. Abramov’s smile, and the way he had said the word Zakoulok, had told her that this name was something special or unusual.
If she had served for longer in the SVR, she would probably have recognized the word but, as she was a comparative newcomer, she had never operated out in the field, or even outside Yasenevo and the Lubyanka.
The book she had opened was a directory of old KGB and current SVR slang and code words. The majority of its pages were copied from official SVR publications but, at the back of the book, Raya had begun making entries of her own, as she discovered new words or new implications of code words that she already knew. She didn’t even bother with the back pages this time, because she knew she had never encountered Zakoulok as a code word. Although she knew its literal meaning: ‘the back alley’.