Punching in the number, he waited.
“Jake, you there?” It was Kurt Jenkins.
“Yeah, we’re fine. I tried calling last night but the Boreal activity must have been messing with the SAT comm.”
“That’s what my comm guy said here also.” Pause and static. “What’s your current situation?”
“Found the MiG yesterday. It’s actually a MiG thirty-one, not a twenty-five. Initially we found five bodies and two snowmobiles. All looked like gunshot but with animal predation.”
“Any sign as to what they were trying to find?”
Jake wondered how much he should tell Jenkins. He was the Agency director and should already know the answer to this. But maybe the Russians had not been as forthcoming as they initially seemed.
“Jake?”
“Yeah. No sign of weapons configuration on the aircraft. No external drop tanks, as far as I could tell, but those could have been jettisoned as the plane was going down.”
“Anything else remarkable about the MiG?”
“Well, in eighty-six we knew just about as much about the MiG thirty-one as we did about the MiG twenty-five. As you know, they were very similar. The newer model had some upgrades in avionics and engines. Both were screamers, yet far less capable as our initial fears. Most of what we knew came from that plane that landed in Japan. The one we flew to Wright-Patt, tore apart, and sent back to the Soviets in pieces. That was brilliant, by the way. I’d like to know who came up with that plan.”
“That would have been former President George Bush, the senior, when he was director of the CIA.”
What was his old friend not asking? “Anything else you need me to find out before I leave here?”
Quiet and hesitation. “You said five bodies? Could you identify them?”
“Initially we found five bodies at the crash site, four Soviets, I’m guessing KGB or GRU, but no identification. We also found the former Oslo man, John Korkala.”
“Wow. He took out all four of them?”
“Well, he probably had help from our friend the Air Force captain.”
“You found Steve Olson.” A statement.
“Yes. He was a couple of hundred yards away, on the highest ridge in the area. I’m guessing he was wounded and went there to try to get a satellite signal. You know how the coverage was at that time?”
Jenkins laughed. “It’s not great now, and they were using an ancient system back then, compared to today’s equipment. Our own use back then was tracking the Soviet sub fleet. What about the MiG pilot?”
“Right, that would officially make seven,” Jake said. He glanced down the hill toward the helo and saw Anna and Kjersti standing in conversation. Looked like they were laughing about something.
“What’s your bottom line assessment, Jake?”
“Once you tell me the true mission of the MiG pilot, then I’ll let you know for sure.” His statement came across more callous than he wanted.
“As I said, we were told the pilot had defected.”
“Right. Last time we talked you told me to be careful. Be careful of what?”
Silence.
“Well?”
“We heard about a possible plot to take out Reagan and Gorbachav during the summit. The hard-liners in the old Soviet government didn’t want anything to do with Glasnost and Perestroika.”
That was true, but also well known. “They would have been quickly cut down if they had done that. That would have been an act of war, and they knew it.”
“That’s what our analysts are telling us also,” Jenkins said. “You sure you don’t want to come back and work for us?”
Considering the times they had asked for his help over the years, it seemed like he had never left. “I hate D.C. And, no offense, but field officers don’t make shit.”
Jenkins laughed and then said, “Offer’s always open. Anyway, back to this case. What was the mission?”
Did Jake tell him what he knew? What did he know for sure? There was a strange metal box with no visible way to open it, with the international symbol for ‘biohazard’ plastered on four sides. If there was anyone Jake could trust, it was Kurt Jenkins. He told him what he had found near Steve Olson’s body, buried in the snow.
“Wow,” Jenkins said. “Maybe it was true, then. Maybe they had planned on using some bio-agent to kill the two leaders. You say they had been carrying it in the fuselage somewhere?”
“Yeah, they had foamed an area inside an avionics bay, which saved it during the crash.”
Silence on the other end. “Any way of telling if they had modified the bay to run cold air into the cube? Something to keep the biological agent cold?”
Jake hadn’t thought of that. “That wouldn’t have been necessary unless they landed for any extended period of time. And the way they have whatever they have in this cube sealed, I’m not even sure hot or cold would do anything to it. Also, assuming the MiG flew above twenty thousand feet, the cube would have remained at temps below freezing.”
“You could have an active agent in that cube.”
Jake knew that. It’s one of the reasons he had left it in the snow all night instead of bringing it into the helo. “Should I leave it here or bring it out with me?”
“I would bring it out, Jake.” No hesitation.
“That’s easy for you to say, Kurt. You don’t have to sleep with the damn thing.”
“You said there was no visible point of entry.”
“True. But a biological can seep through some gas masks. All it would take is a damn pin-hole and I’m fucked.”
“It’s a risk.”
“Why don’t I just stick it out a couple hundred yards and blow the damn thing all to hell with my rifle?”
“You don’t know what’s in there, Jake. It could get into the environment, some bird gets it and we have a pandemic.”
“The Butterfly Effect.”
“Exactly. Or you could kill off some polar bears.”
“I might have to do that anyway. Had to scare two away from the camp this morning.”
“Is there much left of the bodies?”
“A little. From what I understand, until recently the area has been pretty much frozen since eighty-six. But it looks like all but Steve Olson had been chewed on a long time ago.”
“Probably right after they died.”
“Right,” Jake said. “A polar bear can smell blood twenty miles away.”
“You know this how?”
“Discovery channel.”
Silence as Jake glanced down the ridge toward Anna and Kjersti, who still seemed to be laughing about something. Maybe they were talking about him. Anna telling stories.
“Anyway, Jake. Get the box out of there and we’ll check it out. I’ll have a jet sent from England to Oslo.”
Jake agreed, ostensibly, with a grunt, and then he hung up. He thought about his next call to Colonel Reed. What did he want to tell his old commander? Since Kurt Jenkins had not even mentioned the colonel, Jake began to wonder if his old friend was even sanctioned on this mission. Or was something else going on? In the end, he decided the call to Colonel Reed could wait.
He went into the cave overhang where his old friend, Captain Olson still lay, frozen and nearly indistinguishable. Finding the box, Jake shoved it deep into his backpack and surrounded it with his spare clothes.
It was then that he heard the helo approaching from the west.
9
Jake had a choice to make. He could either stay put and see who had come to them, or head down to the helo to be with Anna and Kjersti. In the end, time required him to stay put. From the west, flying in hot and fast, the green camo Bell 412 helicopter swept over a rise, banked hard right circling around their own helo, blowing snow in all directions, and hovered to a stop fifty feet above the MiG-31 crash site.
Confusion below as Anna and Kjersti scrambled into their helo.