Understrike

by James Barrington

  Jackson put down her coffee cup and looked across the table at him.

  ‘And good morning to you too,’ she said. ‘Did you sleep well in your lonely single bed?’

  ‘Sorry, and good morning. Yes, I did have quite a good night. How did you sleep?’

  ‘By myself, which is my usual routine these days, so I’m quite used to it. In some ways it’s actually pleasant not to have to share my bed with a grunting, snoring, farting hairy lump of a man.’

  Richter looked hurt.

  ‘I don’t think I grunt or fart that much, and I’m not particularly hairy,’ he objected. ‘I don’t know about the snoring, though.’

  ‘I didn’t mean you in particular. I was speaking about men in general terms.’

  ‘Oh, good. So, Langley. Anything yet? And where are your two guys?’

  Jackson glanced round before replying, but none of the other diners were close enough to hear what they were saying.

  ‘They had an early breakfast, and they’re out walking the streets, just to see what happens, really. Anyway, Steve got a holding reply back from the desk officer at Langley that was just an acknowledgement of the stuff we sent through and a confirmation that it had been forwarded to Foggy Bottom. The guy who replied also said that he didn’t think State would go for your idea about pulling an airborne emergency and then landing an aircraft full of armed Company personnel here on Svalbard. He thought the Norwegians would rightly see it as a device and take exception, and probably keep our people either locked up in their aircraft or locked up in the terminal building, and that wouldn’t help anybody. We’re trying to keep the Norwegians on side at the moment, for the usual strategic reasons, and State wouldn’t want to make waves unless it was absolutely unavoidable.’

  ‘I still think it was worth making the suggestion.’

  ‘I agree. So, were you trailed back to the Basecamp by a man wearing a Cossack hat and with snow on his boots, or what?’

  Richter shook his head.

  ‘I took the pretty route back there to give them plenty of time to spot me, but I didn’t see another living soul. I also checked all the way around the Basecamp when I reached it, and as far as I can see there was nobody staked outside the building either. I think we’re facing only a small group, six or maybe eight people, not many more than that, and we know their focus has to be on finding Pavlov, so watching us is probably something of a secondary priority, and they’re only doing it in case we turn out to be completely brainless and lead them straight to him.’

  ‘So what do we do? Wait until some more of our people get here, or try and get Pavlov out of whatever hole he’s crawled into, then somehow get him on board that survey ship? It did arrive, by the way, at just after two this morning, so at least one escape route is now in place.’

  ‘The problem with waiting for more of your guys to turn up,’ Richter said, ‘is that the Russians may well be doing the same, and if we wait we might find that instead of it being four of us against, say, eight of them, it’ll be ten of us against about twenty of them. We’d still be outnumbered about two to one, and whatever happens then would just be a whole lot bigger and a whole lot noisier, and that would irritate the Norwegians even more. I think we need to move quickly, and get this done as quietly as possible, but it’s not my op, so it’s your decision. If you do want to wait a day or so I could always ask my boss to try and persuade the powers that be in England to send us a clump of the Green Death – that’s the Royal Marines to you – or even some SAS soldiers. They often exercise in Norway, and Norway owns this lump of frozen rock, so we could just pretend it was some kind of cold weather training operation.’

  ‘We could,’ Jackson agreed, ‘but I don’t think my people would wear it. This is a Company operation, obviously, and they probably wouldn’t be all that keen on you being here at all if they knew, which they don’t, obviously. Anyway, I think you’re probably right about what we do, or at least how soon we should act. We should move quickly, and get this sorted ASAP. The only question, really, is how?’

  ‘I’m working on that. It has to be some kind of distraction operation, something to get the bad guys looking in one direction while we do our stuff somewhere else, but right now I don’t have any idea how we can achieve that in a place this size and with so few people we can use.’

  ‘Or?’

  ‘Or what?’

  ‘Or we take advantage of what happened to you last night.’

  ‘Nothing happened to me last night,’ Richter said.

  ‘I know. That’s the point. Because nobody followed you when you left here, it looks to me like the Russians haven’t got enough men to mount round-the-clock surveillance, so we could make like the ungodly. We move in the middle of the night, pick up the target and then sneak down to the jetty, climb on board that ship and head west for the land of the free. Langley has already confirmed that the ship will sail as soon as we get on board, so that’s all we have to do.’

  ‘Hang on a minute,’ Richter said. ‘I know I didn’t see anyone from the other side when I walked back last night, but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t see me. If I was the leader of the Russian team, I’d post one or two people in a really good vantage point, probably with either a thermal imager and spare batteries or a pair of very good night vision binoculars with infrared circuitry, and make sure that they stayed awake. The two hotels are close enough that one person could easily cover both if he found the right viewing position. They could have watched me from the moment I walked out of the main door here, and I’d never have known about it.’

  ‘I do realize that,’ Jackson said, somewhat testily, ‘but I think there are two things we can take as facts here. First, we’ve only seen three members of the opposition, and I think your guess is right that it’s only a small team. This morning I’m going to go through the flight arrivals data and see if I can work out exactly how many people Moscow sent. It shouldn’t be all that difficult because they probably arrived on the same flight. After all, there would have been no reason to split them, and there are plenty of Russians up here on Svalbard. And because it’s probably a small number of people, and they’re doing two things at the same time – trying to find Pavlov and keeping an eye on what we’re doing – logically they’re going to be sleeping during the night, once they’re certain we’ve all gone to bed. So even if they have got a watcher or two, it’ll take time for the others to get up, get dressed and get out, and interfere in what we’re doing.’

  Richter nodded.

  ‘That makes sense,’ he agreed, ‘so we’d just have to move as fast as we could, and expect to be chased. But with the weapons we’ve got we could hold them off long enough to get Pavlov onto the ship. And after that, he’d be beyond their reach. You said there were two things,’ he reminded her. ‘What’s the second?’

  ‘The ship,’ she said. ‘Walter Burdiss block booked a whole bunch of seats, two on pretty much every aircraft flying out of Longyearbyen. I don’t believe that the Russians don’t already know that, because they will have their sources, just the same as we have. Once we’ve picked up Pavlov, they’ll almost certainly be expecting us to head for the airport in time to catch a flight out of here. They may not even know that the research ship has docked, but even if they do, a lot of cruise ships and research vessels visit Svalbard, stay a day or two and then leave, so they probably won’t be expecting us to use that route to get Pavlov to safety.’

  ‘That’s a good point,’ Richter said, ‘but if you’re right and they know about the seats Burdiss booked on the commercial flights out of here, I’m pretty sure that they’ll also know that a ship has docked, and particularly that it’s an American ship, so we might not get as clear a run down to the jetty as you’re hoping.’

  ‘Right now, what we have is a stalemate,’ Jackson said slowly. ‘The Russian recovery team can’t find Pavlov because he’s made a real good job of burrowing his way deep underground somewhere here. They think we know where he is, or at least we know how to
find him, so all they can do is follow us around until we pick him up. But they daren’t interfere with us, because we are their only lead.’

  ‘If it was easy,’ Richter said, ‘it wouldn’t be fun. Trust me, we’ll find a way.’

  A few minutes later Steve Barber walked into the dining room, crossed to their table and sat down.

  ‘There’s coffee in the pot if you want some,’ Jackson offered.

  ‘Nope, I’m good,’ Barber replied.

  ‘So what happened?’

  Barber grinned at her.

  ‘Pretty much what we expected would happen,’ he said. ‘John and I walked out of the hotel and stood on the sidewalk for a coupla minutes just talking, and then we split, heading in different directions. When we checked behind us, we’d each picked up company, one guy about fifty feet back. They were both new faces, so now we know there are at least five men on the opposition team.’

  ‘That’s helpful, but not too surprising,’ Richter said. ‘We figured it to be quite a small team, and with a bit of luck Carole-Anne can work out just how small by checking the flight arrivals data.’

  ‘I’ll do that this morning,’ she confirmed.

  Richter’s phone rang, the unmistakable sound of the ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ bringing a smile to Jackson’s face.

  ‘That’s Simpson, my esteemed boss,’ Richter said, swiping his finger across the screen to answer the call. ‘He always has had a slightly warped sense of humour,’ he added. ‘Hullo?’

  ‘My sense of humour has nothing to do with you, Richter,’ Simpson snapped, clearly having heard the remark. ‘I presume you’re up and about.’

  ‘You presume correctly. I’ve been up and about for hours.’

  ‘Your Yankee girlfriend keeping you busy, is she? Plenty of rumpy pumpy?’

  Sometimes Simpson’s vocabulary seemed to be based largely on expressions he had used or heard when he was at school.

  ‘Busy enough,’ Richter said, with a quick glance at Jackson, ‘and be aware that I’m in a public place at the moment, so there’s a limit to what I can say.’

  ‘I don’t want you to tell me anything, Richter, unless you genuinely have some earth-shattering news.’

  ‘I haven’t.’

  ‘Good, because what I want you to do is listen. Our Cousins across the water seem to have got a bit of a flea in their ears over the information obtained by the man who met the polar bear.’ Simpson was obviously aware that he was essentially speaking over an open line, and was having to couch what he was saying in as innocuous a way as he could. ‘All sorts of doomsday stuff, ultimate weapons, all that kind of thing. Probably complete nonsense, misinformation, or maybe even disinformation. Anyway, no doubt it will all come out in the wash. But the good news, or possibly the bad news, for you is that I’ve explained to my counterpart in Virginia who you are and what you’re doing on an island full of polar bears up in the frozen north, and I offered him your services. He’s having a bit of trouble getting reinforcements up there – apparently the Norwegians are somewhat touchy about armed Americans wandering about on their territory – and it’s taking longer than he had expected to get DipClear. Long story short, he accepted my offer, so now you’re officially a part of the CIA team there. That means you can start working with the Jackson woman instead of just sleeping with her. I’ve broken the bad news to the people at Legoland, and they’re very unhappy about it, but then they’re very unhappy about most things most of the time, so I told them to take a hike. You’re my man and I’ll decide how I employ you. Any problems with that?’

  ‘No,’ Richter replied briefly. ‘In fact, I’ve already been working with the people up here, so that just confirms the status quo. I presume there’ll be an official instruction winging its way north in the near future?’

  ‘If you mean from Virginia, that should be imminent. As far as we’re concerned, I’m only issuing you this verbal instruction. Take that as an order. Any questions?’

  ‘No,’ Richter said again.

  ‘Good. Then just get on with it.’

  Richter ended the call, tucked the phone back in his pocket and glanced across the table at Jackson.

  ‘Apparently I’m now officially part of your team,’ he said, ‘so I suppose that actually does mean I have to call you ma’am.’

  ‘It’s about time you did,’ Jackson said, smiling.

  ‘I’ve heard nothing from the Company about that,’ Barber said, but exactly on cue his laptop announced that an email message had arrived. He glanced at the text once it had been decrypted, then stretched his hand out across the table. ‘OK, Langley’s just confirmed it. You’re on the team, Paul. Welcome aboard.’

  ‘Wonderful,’ Richter said. ‘Now what the hell do we do?’

  Chapter 20

  Friday

  Glavnoye Razvedyvatel’noye Upravleniye headquarters, Khoroshevskoye Shosse, Khodinka, Moscow

  The results were available as soon as Bykov logged on to the system. The unusual word freaticheskiy had generated seven hits, more than he had expected. But when he opened the first file, he discovered it was just background information on volcanic activity, mainly on the Kamchatka Peninsula and around the Siberian Traps, the two principal areas of the Russian landmass where such activity took place, and there was little more information in the document than he’d already found on the Internet. The next four files were remarkably similar, and could in no way relate to whatever operation or scheme the two senior Russian generals had been discussing.

  The sixth file was the one he had remembered seeing months earlier – his extremely retentive memory had not deceived him – and the conclusion was, as he had also recalled, the Russian equivalent of NFA, no further action. Before he closed it, he checked the distribution list. Both of the senior officers he had heard talking together had been addressees, but neither had commented on its contents or done anything more than simply put their initials beside their names on the distribution list to show that they had seen the file.

  The seventh file was rather different, not least because it was locked, with access forbidden to all officers below the rank of general. That was unusual, but not unheard of, and Bykov paused for a few seconds before proceeding further. He had the rank and the security clearance to obtain access to the file, and his caution was because he wasn’t entirely sure that opening it and reading the contents would be a good idea. An excess of curiosity was no more welcomed in Russia than anywhere else.

  The ‘need to know’ principle is rigidly applied within the armed forces, and sometimes within the governments, of most countries around the world. Those officers or officials who need to know details of a particular subject to do their jobs must always be given access to the files and documentation relevant to it, obviously; those who don’t need to know will find their access denied. The problem Bykov faced was that he had no operational need to open the file. On the other hand, if he did open it, as his rank entitled him to do, and he was then questioned about it, he could simply plead that it was just curiosity about the topic of freaticheskiy, a position that would be supported by the other searches he had made in the central registry database on the subject. And if unlocking the file required any additional authority apart from his rank, because it related to an ongoing operation, for example, then he would immediately back away, as he was required to do.

  It was not a difficult decision. Bykov entered the necessary credentials that would identify him and his security clearance to the system. He had already logged on to the network that morning, and again when he had returned to his office after lunch, but that only provided entry-level access: the new credentials provided the much higher level that was commensurate with his rank. Then he accessed the file again. The padlock symbol disappeared and the file opened at the cover sheet, giving the title, date of creation, responsible officers and other information, all of which he scanned briefly before looking at the distribution list.

  What he saw on the screen in front of him was entirely unexpect
ed. First, it wasn’t actually a GRU file at all. It had been opened well over a year ago, 15 months earlier to be exact, by a senior officer at the Russian Ministry of Defence, following a brief meeting held at the Ministry between a mid-ranking officer and a volcanologist named Semenov who worked at the Vulkanologiya i Seismologiya – the Volcanology and Seismology Institute – on Bol’shaya Gruzinskaya in Moscow. The scientist had essentially walked in off the street with a somewhat wild suggestion that perhaps some of the ongoing eruptions of the volcanoes on the Kamchatka Peninsula might have been deliberately triggered, presumably by the Americans.

  That was the first surprise. The second one was the date the file had been locked, only a couple of months after it had been created. The third thing that didn’t make immediate sense was what was in it: almost nothing. As far as Bykov could see, all that it contained was the usual complete record of the meeting between Semenov and the colonel at the Ministry of Defence who had interviewed him, supported by a few pages of background notes, and a minute sheet that had recommended the contents of the file be copied to the Admiralty Building in St Petersburg, the headquarters of the Russian Navy, to the headquarters of the Northern Fleet at Severomorsk in Murmansk, to four named officers in the highest echelons of the SVR and GRU – the two GRU men Bykov had heard talking together that morning – and, most surprisingly, to the Kremlin. The minute sheet also made reference to a предлагаемое действие – a predlagayemoye deystviye, or ‘proposed action’ document – that was no longer included within the file. And, Bykov noticed, the file had been locked on the same day that this document had been removed, and at the same time its classification had been altered to severely restrict the number of people who could access it.