Page 33 of Cry Havoc

“You requested the meeting,” Lavrinenko said.

“Yes, General. I thought we might discuss the U.S. spy vessel taken off Korea.”

“That is a bit removed from your area of concentration.”

“True, but I think there is a connection. It would help if I knew what was recovered.”

“What if I was to say that you have no need to know in your current assignment?”

“I believe I do, General.”

A bit of insubordination leaked into the major’s voice. Perhaps a trait he had picked up in Paris? Lavrinenko respected that. He had encountered too many officers of late whose fear of consequences paralyzed them from taking risks. An inevitable effect of their system. In this game, taking risks was necessary if one were to counter the American foe in any meaningful way. He looked to Penkovsky, whose expression remained unchanged. He nodded, indicating Major Dvornikov should continue.

“General, it is my understanding that the American spy vessel was captured largely intact by our DPRK allies. For years we have been unable to decode the NSA’s encrypted communications. If that were to change, we would have an unprecedented opportunity to use that decryption technology against the Americans in Vietnam.”

“If we did indeed acquire the ability to decrypt NSA communications, what do you propose?” the general asked.

“First, we do not want to tip off the Americans that we have the technology. From what I know about decryption, the hardware—the physical equipment—will not work without keying material that can easily bechanged, rendering the cryptologic machines useless. If we were to take action against the Americans based on a decrypted message in let’s say, Europe, the timing between a message sent and an operation blown is too coincidental to be anything else; the Americans would know we have their machines and keying technology.”

“I see you have read yourVoennaya Mysljournals. Get to the point, Comrade.”

“Yes, General. In Southeast Asia, specifically in Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam, countries the Americans enter in violation of international law, they conduct operations with a higher frequency than they do anywhere else in the world. They are losing so many men already that, as long as the numbers remain steady and do not spike, they would not be tipped off as to how we are thwarting their missions.”

“If we are already compromising them, how does this help us, if we don’t want the numbers to spike?”

“Because now we can plan. We would know who is going, how many, and be privy to mission specifics. If it’s a wiretap mission on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, we can arrange to transmit disinformation. That is a team and mission we would not want to interdict. If it is a raid on a weapons cache or a reconnaissance or ambush, we can be set up not at an insertion or extraction, which is where we typically interdict, but at their overnight sites or target sites when their helos are hours away. We can be ready to take them with a special counter mission in mind.”

“And what would that be?”

“Capture.”

“The Laotians, Cambodians, and North Vietnamese are already capturing and interrogating American soldiers.”

“Yes. But many American soldiers are killed. These are their most highly trained men. When they are killed, we lose all intelligence value. With advance knowledge of their missions, we can focus our efforts on capture-kill, rather than kill-capture. I know you appreciate the difference.”

“And upon capture, these Americans will continue to be exploited by the Laotians, Cambodians, and North Vietnamese?”

“I propose a different course of action.”

“And what would that be?”

“I propose we bring them here.”

CHAPTER 8

“HERE? TO THE SOVIETUnion?” the director asked.

“Yes.”

“We have taken Americans before; those who fought with General Andrei Vlasov,” Dvornikov said, referring to the Soviet general who had turned against the motherland and led a collaborationist Russian Liberation Army for the Nazis.

“Yes, we captured them from German POW camps at the end of the Great Patriotic War. Most of the Americans were repatriated.”

“But not all.”

Director Lavrinenko opened his drawer and placed his jar of caviar back on his desk.

He slowly unscrewed its top and dipped a dirty spoon in to extract the black gold.