CLOAK & CORKSCREW: 25) CELEBRATION & DISMAY

My Saturday Evening Post: A Serial Novel of Intrigue & Lunacy

52.

The director-general of the SVR made a rare personal appearance to congratulate Igor Kuntevich as he and his superiors were seated around a table in Moscow Center reading sections of Tom Richardson’s manuscript.

The director-general had some hard decisions to make based on what they had learned from the rogue spy’s revelations, and he wanted to witness the process underway:  A small unit of four officers—Kuntevich included—had been assigned to comb through the manuscript, compare it to other raw source material in their files, and validate its accuracy.

Thus far, everything had checked out—and it had onerous ramifications pertaining to several sensitive ongoing operations.

For a start, one of their top agents in France, a Frenchman who operated in the shadows as the French President’s intermediary in arms deals with Middle Eastern and African dictators, and who had been recruited to report all such dealings to Moscow, had been uncovered by the American CIA.  The U.S. agency had been monitoring his every move and knew every deal he made.  This agent had eventually been entrusted by the SVR to conduct illegal arms dealing on its own behalf—secrets that were now presumably known by the Americans.  Which meant certain treaty violations had been documented and would be used against Russia in due course.

Even worse, the CIA had recruited a senior FSB officer based in Paris two years earlier. 

It would have been Richardson’s assignment to take over the handling of this traitor had the ex-CIA officer not been fired.

Consequently, there was nothing Russian intelligence did in France that the Americans did not know about, including an officer in France’s DGSE that the SVR had spent years cultivating and had only just recruited.

The delight that the team might have felt by Kuntevich’s success soon turned to gloom by the dreadful intelligence it produced.  “Are you certain that it fully cross-checks?”

Kunty drew a deep breath and inhaled slowly.  “We don’t have enough raw data to cross-source it to our normal high standard, but it rings true.  The detail is astounding. Richardson could not know such things unless it is true.”  He paused.  “We have to assume CIA knows he has sold us his manuscript.  The operation they mounted against Richardson suggests they were extremely concerned about what he knows.  The problem is this:  If they are aware we now have this material—and I believe they know—CIA will begin taking steps to remove their agent from harm’s way.  We do not have the luxury of time to monitor and analyze.  The FSB traitor, if warned, could disappear at any moment—and eventually resurface in the USA long after he has been thoroughly debriefed.  The CIA will turn the tables on us and, in a major PR campaign, make this look like an espionage success against the Motherland, instead of their failure to constrain a rogue ex-officer.  And we will be publicly embarrassed.  If it were to become known that we could have prevented this from happening, and didn’t….”  Kunty allowed the director-general to completely comprehend his words.  “Next problem:  If CIA informs the French about our agent in the Elysees Palace, the French will force him to tell all he knows about his work for us, either as part of a plea agreement—or by other means.”

The director-general nodded grimly.  “Shall we ask the FSB to recall their officer from Paris?”

Kuntevich shook his head.  “I don’t recommend that, sir.  One, he may detect a problem and bolt.  Two, I don’t think we should alert the FSB until their officer is back in Moscow and our agency has already apprehended him.”

“How do you propose we get him back here?”

 “Exfiltration,” replied Kuntevich.  “We drug him at our embassy, conceal him in a vehicle, drive him home.”

 “You are offering to do this yourself?”

 “Yes sir.”                 

 “And the other—the Frenchman? 

Kuntevich stared stony-faced at his boss of bosses.  “The Americans may beat us to him and blackmail him into cooperating with them.  They are probably planning this as we speak.”  Kuntevich looked the director-general straight in the eye.  “Only one solution.”