“Even with technology at your disposal, it still comes down to boots on the ground Chuck,” replied Vas.
“Now that is something I certainly agree with Vas.”
Vas looked down at his PCDL and said, “They are still a mile ahead, any idea where they might be heading for Chuck?”
“Too early to say at this stage Vas.”
Vas spoke into his Codetta, “eagle-6 to team six close-up with us now, over.”
The reply back was quick, “roger that 6, out.”
A mile ahead Sydney Carter made the turning off the 495 onto the George Washington Memorial Parkway, he glanced in his mirror and could see no signs of the black SUV.
Sean noticed his colleague take a long look in the mirror and said, “Are we clear Syd?”
“Yes no signs of a black SUV, as you said must have been a coincidence.”
Vas picked this up and said, “They have just turned right onto George Washington Memorial Parkway.”
Chuck said, “Interesting I would bet my next pay check they are heading for The Pentagon.”
Vas continued to monitor them and several minutes later he said, “They are now turning right onto route 395 Henry ‘G’ Shirley Memorial Highway.”
A few moments later Vas said, “Now turning right onto South Washington Boulevard, spot on Chuck The Pentagon it is.”
75
The Pentagon
North Rotary road
Arlington County
Virginia 22211
United States
Lat = 38 degrees, 52.3 minutes North
Long = 77 degrees, 3.4 minutes West
Thursday 21st September 1989(same day)
Twelve eighteen hours EST
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defence, located in Arlington County, Virginia.
As a symbol of the U.S. military, ‘the Pentagon’ is often used metonymically to refer to the U.S. Department of Defence rather than the building itself.
The site originally chosen was Arlington Farms that had a roughly pentagonal shape, so the building was designed accordingly as an irregular pentagon.
A secondary site was then found with the original design and shape being kept.
The building was completed on the 15th January 1943 after construction began on September 11, 1941.
The Pentagon consists of five floors and has over 17.5 miles of corridors; however, it only takes 7 minutes to walk from one side to the other, this is achieved because of the unique but basic simple design of five concentric rings linked by ten major numbered corridors resembling the spokes of a wheel.
The Department of Defence (DoD) is the Executive Department of the Government of the United States of America charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government concerned directly with national security and the United States Armed Forces.
The Department headed by the Secretary of Defence has three subordinate military departments.
The U.S. Department of the Army, the U.S. Department of the Navy, and the U.S. Department of the Air Force and is the largest employer in the world.
Formed on 10th August 1949 preceding the U.S. Department of War and U.S. Department of the Navy.
The Department is allocated the highest level of budgetary resources among all Federal agencies, and this amounts to more than one-half of the annual Federal discretionary budget.
Carter and McFaul entered the facility via the southeast main entrance and found their way into the vast building having used their badges to negotiate the security, they then made there way to room 3D128.
The first number or letter indicates the floor on which the room is located.
The next letter is the ring, on which the room is located, rings are designated A, B, C, D, and E for the Mezzanine and floors 1-5 plus the additional rings F and G in the basement only.
The next digit or the next two digits indicate the corridor on which the room is located; corridors are designated 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. In addition, the last two digits indicate the specific bay or room number assigned to an office.
Therefore, they went to the third floor, ‘A’ ring to the 1st corridor to the ‘D’ ring then turned left and proceeded to room number28.
Carter knocked on a door and this was followed a man’s voice, “come in!”
Carter opened the door and entered the small room followed by McFaul, the man behind the desk looked up and said, “good God Syd; long time no see!”
The man got up and rounded his desk extending his hand to Carter; both men shook hands and then embraced.
Carter then turned to McFaul and said, “Sean this is Ashton Carter my older brother.”
Sean extended his hand and said, “nice to meet you Ashton.”
Both men shook hands with Ashton saying, “call me Ash Sean.”
Ash beckoned them to his desk and said, “Grab a seat.”
Ash Carter was forty-one years of age, with greying short crop hair and a slim build standing at five-foot seven inches.
He currently held the position as a senior analyst with the Defence Intelligence agency (DIA).
The three men sat down and Ash said, “I know you well enough Syd to know this is not a social visit, what’s on your mind?”
Ash listened intently as his brother briefed him on the warehouse raid, when he finished Ash pulled a stack of paper from his desk and said, “I remember that, it came in from the Virginia State Police yesterday,” he sorted through the paperwork and then pulled out a sheet.
“Yes here it is, it was quickly identified of little importance at our end, give me a second to re-read it.”
A few moments later ash looked up and said, “yep! A straight forward arms cache seizure, so what’s your interest in this brother?”
Syd quickly looked at Sean, then back to his brother, and decided to tell a white lie to his brother and said, “we have reason to believe a third party may have been involved in the raid and not the Police.”
“What makes you say that Syd?”
“A single casing was found at the scene that was not police issue ammunition or from the men guarding the warehouse.”
Ash said, “what was it from Syd?”
“The cartridge casing is from 9x19mm Parabellum weapon, typically from a Glock or Colt pistol or the Heckler & Koch MP-5 submachine gun range. The Police were using Smith and Wesson S&W Model 64 .38 calibre 4-inch barrel stainless steel revolvers and the Remington Model 870 pump-action shotgun and the Russians used the 9x39mm SP-6 round.”
Ash looked at brother and said, “I don’t like where this is going Syd.”
“We have made several enquiries at our end and have drawn a blank with any military, Police, FBI, ATF or other law enforcement units being deployed to the warehouse. All I need from you Ash; is to double check what we have already checked from your end and see if you can find a footprint on whom left the casing there, can you do that?”
Ash thought for a few moments and replied, “leave it with me for twenty-four hours; I’ll see what I can dig up.”
“That’s all I want Ash, you can contact me on this number.”
Syd wrote down on a piece of paper a telephone number and handed it to his brother.
Ash looked at the number and said, “you moved since we last talked?”
Syd replied, “no, this is a CIA house we are using, speak to you soon.”
Ten minutes later Carter and McFaul were exiting the building and making their way over to the parking lot for their car.
As they both climbed into the vehicle Sean said, “do you think you brother will dig anything up Syd?”
“If there is a ghost agency involved, I am sure Ash will find a footprint for us.”
“What now Syd?”
Syd Looked at his watch; thirteen eighteen hours and replied, “back to Langley.”
Both Vas and Chuck eyeballed the two CIA agents vehicle exiting The Pentagon at the same time, Vas spoke into his Codetta, “eagle-6 too team we have target vehicle on the move, remember we have no satellite coverage, out.”
Chuck fired the engine up engaged drive, moved out a distance behind the CIA Ford SUV, and commenced tailing them.
Once Chuck had settled into a discreet following distance, Vas said to him, “any chance you could find out who they visited back there?”
“I will make a phone call later Vas; security will have them logged in, I wonder how Max faired with Yurchenko?”
76
Safe house
Stockton lane
Richmond, Virginia
USA
Lat = 37 degrees, 33.2 minutes North
Long = 77 degrees, 30.0 minutes West
Thursday 21st September 1989(same day)
Fourteen thirty-seven hours EST
Max and his team had arrived back from snatching Yurchenko forty minutes earlier, on the journey back Yurchenko had been sedated and was now in the garage of the safe house.
Max had strung him up in an upright stance, his hands and legs had been secured with plastic ties and his arms were above him connected to a rope slung over a beam in the garage.
His feet were touching the ground and he had a loosely fitted cloth hood over his head.
Yurchenko began to regain consciousness and immediately felt nauseous and threw up the contents of his stomach spewing from his mouth immediately into the hood around his face and then trickling down his face and his neck.
The stench nearly caused him to repeat the process.
Max had observed this a few yards away whilst sitting in a chair, he watched for a few moments as Yurchenko began to struggle against his restraints and then stood up and moved around to the back of Yurchenko’s vertically prostrate body.
Max leaned close to Yurchenko’s left ear and said, “You’re wasting your efforts Yuri!”
Yurchenko had not heard the presence of anyone else and the voice startled him, he also detected the voice was not speaking with an American accent but seemed to have a more English pronunciation.
He tried to turn towards the direction of the voice but was unable to he said, “Who the hell are you and do you know how much trouble you are in by kidnapping me?”
Max replied, “relax Yuri me and you are going to have a little chat about Red Mercury.”
“No idea what you’re talking about!”
Yurchenko immediately felt excruciating and violent pain to his left rear rib cage and let out a loud animalistic cry.
Max leaned forward and said, “Wrong answer Yuri, let me explain the rules of this game. I ask you a question and you answer truthfully, noncompliance and I get to inflict more pain on you. What you just experienced is the mildest form of the pain range, each time it will become more painful and I have at my disposal a variety of ways and instruments to accomplish this. I am a fair man Yuri so I will give you ten minutes to digest what I have just said and when I come back we will start on a fresh sheet, understand?”
Yurchenko was still recovering from the blow to his side and only managed a grunt.
Max said, “I’ll take that as a yes.”
Max walked away from Yurchenko and placed the three-foot wooden baton he had struck Yurchenko with down on a table and left the garage.
One of his men was outside and he said to him, “Just keep an eye on him.”
“Will do sir.”
Max walked back into the kitchen area where Roy and Tracy were sitting at the kitchen table chatting, they both turned to look at him and Roy said, “Has he woken up Max?”
“Yes several minutes ago Roy.”
Tracy said, “Is he talking Max?”
Max gave a grin and replied, “Oh he can talk Tracy but at the moment he seems too not want to answer my questions. Nevertheless, I am sure he will change his mind I have just left him in some discomfort and helped him understand the rules of our little game.”
Roy had poured Max a black coffee and handed it to him; Max took a sip and could see the concern in Tracy’s eyes following his reply to her question.
Roy had also clocked Tracy’s concern and he sat down immediately across from her and said, “Tracy you certainly understand that it is never going to be easy extracting information from a suspect, we understand that you have rules and protocols to follow when interrogating a suspect. However, we only have one rule; whatever it takes to accomplish the mission will be done!”
Tracy looked at Roy and then at Max before replying, “I know the stakes are high but torturing is a hard pill for me to swallow guys.”
Max said, “It’s something that we do not relish Tracy, but as Roy said, whatever it takes,” Max looked at his watch and said, “He has had his ten minutes.”
Max placed his cup down and walked out of the kitchen.
As Max walked from the room Roy said to Tracy, “Don’t worry, Yurchenko is not a trained field operative. Max will not need to use too much persuasion to get him to talk.”
Tracy replied, “I hope you are right Roy!”
Max re-entered the garage, picked up the wooden baton in his right hand from the table, raised his right arm high above him, and immediately slammed the baton onto the tabletop.
The sound reverberated around the garage and frightened Yurchenko, Max walked over to him dragging the baton on the floor.
“Your ten minutes are up Yuri, so let me ask you the same question again, tell me about the Red Mercury that is now in this country?”
Yurchenko had reflected on his predicament in the last ten minutes and what the man had said about the pain he would endure.
He had weighed up his options; firstly, he was not happy about the pain option and secondly how much did his captor really know.
The question just asked told him his captor knew the Red Mercury was on US soil and he replied, “Yes! Red Mercury is here.”
Max said, “Where is it?”
“All I know, was it was taken to a warehouse but I was not privy to the location.”
“You are doing well Yuri, now what is the target?”
“Again I was not party to that information.”
The blow that followed to his stomach area knocked the wind out of him and the pain associated with it burned through his torso like a fire.
Max had used the end of the baton driving into Yurchenko’s stomach with just enough controlled force to achieve maximum pain but not at the expense of serious internal injuries.
A minute later Yurchenko’s breathing was returning to normal and Max said, “Yuri; you were doing so well, please do not take me for a fool do I need to repeat the question?”
Yuri quickly replied, “The SALT agreement, they will use it at the SALT signing.”
Max said, “Now we are communicating Yuri, I have a few more questions to ask you and we will be done.
For the next several minutes, Max ascertained the connection between Yuri and the CIA deputy director Walter Smith and the removal of the Red Mercury out of Russia by Ivan Balagula.
When he had finished Yuri said, “You have everything I know so let me go!”
Max replied, “Can’t do that Yuri, you have an appointment back in Russia with your President.”
“I will renounce everything I have said to you.”
“That’s your choice Yuri, but you are still going back home. I will have you cut down and made more comfortable.”
Max exited the garage and said to the OSC guard, “cut him down and restrain him remove his hood and make him comfortable and keep a two-hour guard rotation on him, anyone going
in wears a balaclava,”
“Leave it with me sir.”
Max returned to the kitchen area where Tracy looked up at him with an apprehensive look, Max said, “It’s okay Tracy he capitulated quickly with very little incentive from me.”
Roy said, “There, I told you so.”
Tracy said, “What’s he said?”
Max briefed Roy and Tracy on the interrogation and when he had finished Tracy said, “So the target is the SALT agreement a week tomorrow.”
Max replied, “Yes, as we had initially believed.”
Tracy said, “So; where do we go with this information Max?”
“Firstly I will contact Vas and see what they have and then I will contact our end and update them on what we have.”
77
Central Intelligence Agency
Langley
Fairfax County, Virginia
USA
Lat = 38 degrees, 57.2 minutes North
Long = 77 degrees, 8.8 minutes West
Thursday 21st September 1989(same day)
Fifteen forty-one hours EST
Vas Dembo and his team had followed Carter and McFaul back to Langley and parked up down the road an hour and half ago.
Chuck Morris had left them and walked up the road to his office to make some phone calls.
Vas’s Codetta came to life, “eagle-2 to eagle-6 what’s your twenty, over?”
Vas replied, “current location Langley, over.”
“Give me a SITREP, over.”
“We followed targets to The Pentagon and then to here, Chuck has gone to his office to make a couple of calls to ascertain whom they visited, over.”
“Copy that, as soon as you have done there rendezvous back here and leave a team to keep eyes on the targets, over.”
“Will do, eagle-6 out.”
Twenty minutes later Chuck returned and climbed into the driver’s seat, Vas said, “Any luck Chuck?”
“They visited Carter’s bother who is a senior analyst at the DIA. I have someone monitoring his calls and they will get back to me later today.”
Red Mercury Page 23