Page 68 of Cold Target

"I think Kinsman has someone on the inside," Joe said.

“On the inside? Where?”

“The task force,” Joe said. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. Someone is feeding him information.”

"Shit,” Ivy said. “Are you okay?”

"I’m fine, but I was warned."

Silence on the other end. Ivy didn’t press for details.

"What do you have?" he asked.

He heard her take a breath, shifting gears. "I've been in the archives. Treasury records, old Commerce Department files that included Soviet shipping manifests from the late eighties. Volkov was listed as an authorized officer for special munitions handling. Specifically, RA-115 devices."

"What does that mean?"

"RA-115 is a designation. Portable atomic demolition munitions. The 12th Main Directorate had custody—that's the unit that handled nuclear weapons accounting for the Soviet military."

Joe stared out at the dark street. "Portable?” His mind landed on something. “You mean, like, suitcase nukes?"

"Maybe. The records are incomplete. But after the Soviet Union collapsed, they lost track of some of this stuff, if you can believe that. The accounting broke down. There were rumors for years that some of them went missing. Sold, stolen, hidden or just plain lost. No one knows for sure as it was complete chaos."

"So Kinsman was after Volkov, or the lost nukes."

"Or both."

"Two scenarios, then" Joe said. "Either Volkov is building new devices for them, or he knows where the old ones are."

"That's my guess, too."

Joe watched his breath plume in the cold.

"They must have a deployment strategy," he said. "The Soviets loved to plan that kind of stuff.”

There should be intelligence assessments somewhere, war game scenarios. If I can find out what the Soviet plan was maybe we can figure out what Kinsman is planning. It could be totally different or it could be along the same lines."

"Yeah," Joe said.

"What are you–"

"I'm going in."

"In where? And alone?"

"I don't have a choice and we don't have time. If Volkov is with Kinsman, if they're building something or moving something, we need to know now."

"You need backup. Let me call?—"

"Who?" Joe's voice was flat. "The task force? Kinsman has been ahead of me every step of the way. He’s smart, but not that smart."

Silence.

"Exactly," Joe said.

"Then let me come up there. I can?—"

"No. You're more valuable doing what you're doing. Find out about those devices. Find out what the plan was."