The Man from Leningrad

by R. J. Patterson

  With his lunch hour dwindling down, Maddux guided his vessel up to the platform and tied off. After collecting his oars, he eased out of the boat and found himself standing face-to-face with Pritchett. The CIA station chief patted Maddux on his shoulder before steering him back toward the shore.

  “Did you like being out on the water today?” Pritchett asked.

  “How come I get the feeling that I might not be able to do that again for a while?” Maddux asked.

  “You know me too well. Let’s talk.”

  “Give me a second.”Maddux hustled inside the boathouse and dropped off his rented sculls. He gave a tip to the attendant, alerting him that he was done with his session.

  “Will you be bringing your lovely sculling partner next time?” the young man asked.

  Maddux grinned as he shot the man a sideways glance.“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you have a crush on Miss Fuller.”

  The man smiled sheepishly and didn’t say a word.

  “Maybe next time,” Maddux said. “She was a little busy today.”

  Maddux exited the boathouse and resumed his conversation with Pritchett.

  “Sorry about the interruption,” Maddux said. “Now, what is it this time?”

  “I need you to come in as soon as possible, maybe even cut your workday short.”

  “What’s all this about?”

  “I need you to find an excuse to take a work trip to Leningrad.”

  “Leningrad? You want me to go deep behind enemy lines this time, don’t you?”

  Pritchett nodded.“We don’t have much of a choice this time. The stakes are incredibly high right now, and they rest upon us figuring out what’s happened to one of our best assets embedded within the Soviet military.”

  “You sure you can’t send anyone else in my place? I’ve got some big projects coming up at work.”

  Pritchett shook his head emphatically.“This mission is tailor-made for you. Besides, we can’t get anyone else inside the border on such short notice. Honestly, that’s why we wanted you for this assignment. You’re uniquely positioned to navigate across the border without raising an eyebrow with customs.”

  “All right,” Maddux said. “I’ll be in later this afternoon to discuss the operation.”

  “Don’t forget to talk with your superiors and see what you can do about getting into Leningrad.”

  Maddux hustled back to his office at Opel, disappointed that he would have to leave the pleasant routine he’d created, especially since it included a healthy dose of time spent with the station’s director of technical services, Rose Fuller. But he was excited about the prospect of a new adventure, despite the danger that accompanied it.

  Victor Zalinski, Maddux’s supervisor, always complied with the CIA’s demands regarding his marketing director’s time. With a hefty annual payment each year, Opel was able to afford three full-time positions without a single dime coming out of the company’s profits. And with two other employees who could handle Maddux’s work in his absence, Zalinski never put up much resistance if any to such requests.

  “Where are you off to this time?” Mel asked with a wry smile.

  Maddux stared blankly at his boss but remained silent.

  “I know, I know,” Zalinski said. “If you told me, you’d have to kill me.”

  “I wouldn’t take it that far, sir.”

  “But there would be repercussions, right?”

  Maddux was tight-lipped as Zalinski signed off approval for travel expenses to Leningrad.

  “Good thing we have a partnership there with the Russians. Otherwise, the CIA would be up a creek,” Zalinski quipped.

  “I’m sure they’d find other means of gaining access if that were the case,” Maddux said.

  “Well, it’s fine by me, but I might need you to do a little bit more than just marketing meetings while you’re there.”

  Maddux’s eyebrows arched upward.“Such as?”

  “In my last conversation with one of my contacts there, he mentioned wanting to establish a distribution arrangement for parts.”

  “They want to buy parts off of us?”

  “Yeah, but at cost.”

  “That seems a little suspect.”

  Zalinski nodded.“That’s what I was thinking. They have access to trade partners that we don’t have, countries that can produce things at a far lower price than what we can offer.”

  “What do you want me to do about it?”

  “See what’s going on in their manufacturing plant. Snoop around a little.”

  “Snoop around?” Maddux asked, his eyes widening. “That’s how you find yourself working in a Siberian gulag for the rest of your miserable existence.”

  “From what I understand, spies are good at looking into such matters.”

  “Sir, that could really complicate things for me.”

  Zalinski shrugged.“Just do what you can. Don’t get taken off to a salt mine for it, but if you happen to see something, make a note about it. See what they need these parts for. They might just want them because they’re a much higher quality, but that seems out of character for a Russian manufacturer.”

  “Okay, I’ll see what I can do while I’m there. But I’m not making any promises.”

  “Whatever you do, just come back in one piece, okay?”

  Maddux nodded and returned to his desk.

  * * *

  TWO HOURS LATER, Maddux strode through the back entrance to the CIA station and reported to Pritchett’s office.

  “Glad you could make it,” Pritchett said. “Like I said earlier, I wouldn’t do this to you if you weren’t our only option.”

  “I’ll be fine. Besides, I’ve been working on my Russian and am looking forward to the opportunity to practice it with some native speakers.”

  Pritchett stood.“Let’s go into the conference room, and I’ll ask the team to join us.”

  Maddux headed down the hall to the conference room and was soon joined by another agent, Malcolm Poindexter, who went by Dex, and Rose Fuller.

  Pritchett shut the door behind him and eased into his seat at the head of the table.“I appreciate Agent Maddux being able to make it down here on such a short notice,” Pritchett said. “He’s already procured a flight to Leningrad in the morning, which will help us expeditiously gather the information necessary to determine what exactly is going on with our asset.”

  Pritchett gestured toward Dex.

  “Thank you, sir,” Dex said as he stood. “Based on our latest communiqué from Agent Logan four weeks ago, Alexsandr Zhirkov was scheduled to compete in a Leningrad city chess tournament. He never re-emerged from the hotel where the event occurred, Logan reported.”

  “What kind of hypothesis are we drawing then?” Maddux asked.

  “We certainly don’t believe he’s still in there as that seems rather unlikely,” Dex said. “However, we do think it’s possible that he’s been compromised in some way. Perhaps he was taken out through an alley or other back exit. At this point, it’s all purely speculation.”

  “And you want me to get to the bottom of it?” Maddux asked.

  Dex nodded. “We would let Logan handle this, but he runs the risk of being compromised if he gets caught poking around for information about Zhirkov.”

  “And I’m a safer bet to avoid getting apprehended?”

  “We think so,” Dex said with a hint of a smile.

  “You’re not exactly instilling a lot of confidence in me,” Maddux said.

  Rose patted Maddux’s hand.“Don’t worry,” she said. “Come see me downstairs in my lab. I’ll give you all the peace of mind you need when you see some of the new technology I’ve been working on.”

  “I like the sound of that,” Maddux said.

  Dex slid a folder across the table to Maddux.“I’ve prepared a full dossier for you to review before your trip. If you have any questions, please ask before you leave this room.”

  Pritchett slapped the table.“We’ll let you get to it,
Maddux.”

  He stood and headed toward the door before halting abruptly. His secretary rushed into the room.

  “Sir, you need to read this cable,” she said, offering him a piece of paper. “It’s urgent.”

  Pritchett took the note from her and scanned it briefly.

  Everyone in the room remained frozen as they watched Pritchett read.

  “What does it say?” Rose finally asked.

  Pritchett sighed and folded up the cable before putting it inside his coat pocket.“Our code breaking team in Washington just intercepted a message from someone else we’ve been watching for quite a while in Leningrad.”

  “And?” she asked, her eyes widening.

  “Zhirkov was telling the truth. The Soviet Navy is preparing to deploy one of their nuclear subs later this week with a singular mission—launch a nuclear attack on the U.S.”

  Chapter III

  Bonn, Germany

  BEFORE LEAVING THE CIA OFFICES, Maddux took the elevator down into the depths of the building where Rose Fuller’s lab was housed. Donning a white coat and protective goggles, she was tinkering with a gadget when he strode through the door. The device whirred and then launched into the air, hitting the ceiling before crashing down. She raced over to collect all the pieces that were strewn across the concrete floor.

  Maddux chuckled, pausing to lean against the doorway as he watched Rose.

  “If I would’ve known working for the Office of Technical Services division was this much fun, I would’ve applied a long time ago,” he said before joining her on the ground.

  She sighed and rolled her eyes.

  “This is only my fifty-seventh prototype of this little gizmo—and it still doesn’t work,” Rose said.

  “What’s it supposed to do?”

  “It’s a mobile microphone that we can fly remotely into a place and park it, while it relays information to a nearby listening post using low-frequency radio waves. At least, that’s what it’s supposed to do. So far, it’s done nothing but fly straight up and then crash.”

  Maddux handed her a few pieces.“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

  “Maybe by the time I’m eighty, if I’m lucky.”

  Maddux cocked his head and eyed her closely.“What happened to all that optimism? I’ve never heard you talk like this.”

  She stood and eased the parts onto a nearby worktable.“You caught me at a weak moment. Besides, I hate it when projects take this long to come together, especially when I’m not seeing even a bit of progress.”

  “Well, I’m sure you have more tools than not that are working out,” Maddux said. “And I was hoping you might share one or two with me before I left for Leningrad.”

  “Anticipating plenty of conflict when you get there?”

  He shook his head.“No—well, there could be. I just want to be prepared for anything that does occur. I’m still working hard on mastering the Russian language, and if I slip up, it might be obvious to someone there that I’m indeed a fraud.”

  “That’s understandable,” she said with a glint in her eye. “But I might have just the thing for you.”She scurried over to a nearby table and picked up a pair of shoes.“What size are you again?”

  “I wear an eleven.”

  “Perfect,” she said before returning and then dropping the shoes on the floor. They hit the tile with a large clap, echoing throughout the cavernous room.

  Maddux jumped back as thin blades ejected from the sides of the soles, transforming the wingtips into dangerous weapons. His eyes widened as he stared at the shoes.

  “These look more like razortips to me,” he said as he knelt to inspect the gadget shoes more closely. “How did you think of that?”

  “That’s not all,” she said as she joined him on the floor.

  She folded the spring-loaded blades back into the soles and then stood. With a solid thump on the back heel, a small compartment sprang open, revealing a key.

  “If you ever find yourself handcuffed and you don’t want to be, this little feature will help you make a quick escape. I call these shoes The Houdinis.”

  “Anything else I should pack for this trip?” he asked as a smile spread across his face.

  She nodded and winked at him.

  “I’ve got one more device that’s kind of clever for escaping,” she said, leading him across the room to another table. She picked up a small cylinder about the size of a twelve-ounce glass.“This will give you a little extra time underwater if you need it.”

  He peered closely at the object.“How does it work?”

  “Simply place your lips here and depress this small button on the side. It’ll inject a deep breath’s worth of oxygen into your mouth, enabling you to stay submerged longer. How long can you hold your breath?”

  “Just about three minutes if I’m swimming, longer if I’m just being still.”

  “In that case, this will allow you to say beneath the surface for up to nine additional minutes, meaning you’d have twelve minutes to swim away from anyone pursuing you.”

  “This could come in handy,” Maddux said as he took the device from her.

  “Just remember that the ultimate goal is to first rely on your espionage training before resorting to these tools. Think of these as your emergency parachutes and you’ll be just fine.”

  Maddux shook his head and looked at his hands, which started to bead with sweat.“You do realize that I still hate jumping from tall heights? I mean, just the mention of parachutes and I start to get anxious.”

  “It was just a metaphor, okay?”

  “Okay, you just know how I get.”

  “You’ll be fine,” she said with a wink.

  “Just out of curiosity, are other agents getting these gadgets?”

  “Maybe,” she said with a shrug. “Why do you ask?”

  “It seems like most of what you give me is designed to help me escape, not gather information.”

  “Perhaps I just want to make sure that you make it back. Is that so wrong?”

  “Of course not,” Maddux said. “It’s just that—”

  He paused when Rose gave him a quick peck on his cheek.

  “Good luck,” she said with a coy grin.

  “Thanks,” he said. “I’ll need luck and then some.”

  He turned and headed for the door before she called out to him.

  “One more thing,” she said, hustling after him.

  “What is it?” he asked as he stopped.

  “I overheard one of the analysts yesterday talking about John Hambrick.”

  “Someone discussing my father, like in the present tense?”

  She nodded. “I didn’t catch enough of what they were saying, but it sounded like they were getting some intel from him somehow.”

  “That means the CIA has a way of communicating with him.”

  “I would assume as much, but that’s not what they told you, is it?”

  “They’re still very guarded about what they tell me, feeding me bits and pieces of information here and there. I’m just going to keep digging.”

  “I’ll do the same,” she said. “But just be careful. There’s got to be a reason why they haven’t told you everything yet.”

  Chapter IV

  Leningrad, Russia

  MADDUX ARRIVED AT the Leningrad Airport the next morning and was met by Boris Romanov, the CEO of Protek. With his thinning dark hair swept across his head, he smiled as he held up a sign with Maddux’s name. Maddux acknowledged Romanov with a nod and then offered his hand.

  “Welcome to Leningrad,” Romanov said in English.

  “Thank you,” Maddux said. “I was hoping to practice my Russian.”

  “There will be time for that later, but we have a tight schedule this afternoon and need to discuss many things.”

  Romanov spun and strode toward the exit, apparently uninterested in small talk. Maddux followed his host and shivered once they walked outside, a blast of cold air shocking him.

  “Is
it always this cold in March here?”

  Romanov chuckled. “This is Russia. It is never warm here, Mr. Maddux.”

  Maddux glanced around the parking lot and realized why Protek was so desperate for help in the manufacturing of automobiles. Aside from a few imports, the majority of the cars looked cobbled together with no sense of design or aerodynamics. They were boxy and consequently inefficient. From the looks of things, Maddux realized the sleek modern designs emerging out of Europe had yet to make an impact on the design of Russian vehicles.

  Upon arriving at Protek headquarters, Maddux was whisked straight into a meeting with the company’s top marketing executives. Once everyone was introduced, Maddux inquired about the presence of engineers.

  “I apologize if my question is rude, but I was under the impression that this meeting would also include several of your design team’s engineers,” he said. “It’s vital that they are a part of the re-imagining of the type of car you will be building with us as we discuss how we can assist you with marketing efforts.”

  Romanov looked down and sighed.“We don’t exactly have engineers who work for us,” he said. “We get a few designs approved by the government each year and choose from those. Engineers are scarce among private businesses.”

  “And why is that the case?”

  A few of the people around the table snickered.

  Romanov shook his head.“Mr. Maddux, you have much to learn about Russia, particularly when it comes to Brezhnev’s determined effort to build up the Soviet military. If you are an engineer, you work for the government. There isn’t even a question any more of where you will be employed.”

  “How can you be expected to run an innovative automobile manufacturing company with those stipulations? I mean—”

  Maddux stopped and looked around the table. Everyone had their heads down, shifting nervously in their seats. He knew that he was overstepping his bounds by raising such questions. They all likely knew the answer was something akin to, “You’re right. It’s next to impossible.” But not a single person was going to say it.

  “I’m sorry,” Maddux said after a brief pause. “I didn’t mean to offend. If that’s what we have to work with, then let’s figure out a way to proceed without allowing those limitations to hamper your creativity.”