by Dale Brown
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 93
a burglar was the last thing he was worried about-he'd almost
welcome that. There were others more dangerous.
He moved to the fireplace, picked up a poker and made a fast
search of the apartment. Nothing. No sign of forcible entry,
nothing missing. One more place to check.
He stood up on a stool and removed six books from the top
shelf of the built-in bookshelves in the living room. On the back
wall of the bookshelf he pressed on a board and a section sprang
open about a half inch, revealing a panel hiding the steel door
to a small wall safe. He had installed the safe himself shortly
after moving into the apartment-one of the precautions he had
taken years earlier, along with carefully arranging things in his
drawers to help detect intruders, when he got his assignment to
Las Vegas.
Instead of opening the hidden panel fully, he reached behind
the panel with one finger and disconnected a wire leading from
the door inside to the combination safe behind the panel. The
wire was connected to an incendiary device inside the safe; if
the door had been opened more than a finger's width the device
inside the safe would incinerate the contents. The safe obviously
had not been-
A faint, lingering odor. Cigarettes, or an old stale cigar. He
did not smoke. He turned . . .
"Sloppy of you, Captain James. " The voice came from be-
hind him. He braced along the wall. A quick leap, a hard push
and-
He heard the metallic click, and another voice: "Come down
from there, Maraklov, before you hurt yourself, or worse."
Slowly he replaced the trip wire on the safe's hidden panel,
closed it and stepped off the stool. Turning, he saw two men,
one standing directly behind him holding a weapon, the other
man seated on his sofa. He noted the weapon-not a pistol but
a taser, a gun that shot small electrified darts. The darts, con-
nected to the taser gun by a thin wire, were charged with twenty
thousand volts at low amperage with the press of a trigger, caus-
ing instant paralysis. The dart only buried itself a fraction of an
inch into the skin, but with a strong electric current from the
taser short-circuiting the victim's nervous system, he was pow-
erless to pull or shake it free. A potent weapon-quiet, effective
but non-lethal. That last encouraged Maraklov. They wanted
him, but they didn't want him dead.
94 DALE BROWN
He turned to the man on the couch. Henry Kramer was fif-
tyish, short, bulky but not fat, thin dark hair and beady eyes.
He was dressed in a dark ill-fitting suit with a thin dark tie,
looking too much a caricature of what he was-a conniving So-
viet KGB agent, far more serious and dangerous than he looked.
"What are you doing here, Kramer? " Maraklov tried to
control his anger as he also looked at the younger man with
the taser. "Put that away. Look, you people are crazy to come
here-"
Moffitt, the younger agent, lowered the taser but did not put
it down. "We were worried about you, Captain James. And you
should have locked our door before searching your apartment.
We not only were able to get behind you, but found out where
your safe is. You seem to be getting complacent . . . "
Maraklov forced himself to answer. He locked the front door
closed the blinds and began replacing books on the shelf. -No@
what are you really doing here?"
"Captain," Kramer said, "people are displeased. The infor-
mation stream you have been supplying has become a trickle."
"I told you why in my last report. Perhaps you've not had
time to read it. They're cracking down on security at HAWC like
never before. Major Briggs has been given the widest leeway to
stop security leaks, and they've been promised full cooperation
from the federal judges in Las Vegas. That means not only
searches of military property at Dreamland and Nellis but legal
searches of private non-military residences too. They could even
get, probably have gotten, authority for wiretapping, no-knock
searches and arrests at any time. I thought it was Briggs in here
already. "
"We have connections at the federal courthouse," Kramer
said. "If there has been cooperation between the military and
the federal courts I'm sure' an anonymous tip to the Las Vegas
papers will stir things up. A report about widespread military
authority to search private residences? They go crazy over such
things here. Especially the press. Our perestroika caught some
of it." Kramer studied Maraklov. "Are you saying tightened
security is your reason for not supplying one photograph of the
XF-34A fighter plane or its components in over three weeks?"
"They haven't let me be alone with the plane or its technical
data since then. I was able to be alone with a set of the aircrafts
technical layouts a week ago but discovered an unusual change
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 95
in the schematics that I didn't understand ... a dogtooth mod-
ification to the wings-"
"A what?"
"A special wing design that creates two differently perfon-n-
ing wing structures on one surface. On a mission-adaptive wing
like DreamStar's, the dogtooth might increase its capabilities
twenty percent."
"A significant development indeed," Moffitt said. "Why
didn't you report this? If they left you alone with the specifica-
tions why did you not photograph them?"
James turned to him. "Because I think it's a fake. Or it could
be. A plant. A trick. They may want me to see the dogtooth
wing-and then they want to see if the dogtooth shows up on a
satellite photograph of a Russian fighter at Ramenskoye or in a
supposedly secure telephone message to Moscow. The dogtooth
looks like a notch in the wings and is visible on satellite pho-
tography. It's not just me. I'm sure they showed something dif-
ferent to each of the key players-a tail modification drawing to
Powell, a nozzle mod to Butler . . . Major Briggs probably
cooked up dozens of these tests for security leaks. Mine was the
dogtooth . . . "
"You are sure these are fakes?"
Maraklov had to pause, even though he knew the hesitation,
no matter how slight, would make Kramer and Moffitt suspi-
cious. Then: "No, I'm not sure. The dogtooth design has been
incorporated in numerous advanced fighters-it would be pos-
sible for our designers to use a dogtooth wing without stealing
the idea from the Americans. But I'm sticking to my hunch: I
think the dogtooth wing is a fake. And that's why I didn't report
it. "
"But if it is not," Moffitt said, "our own designers will be
that much farther behind in our designs. Don't you think you
should have at least reported this finding? It would have alerted
our agents that Dreamland has stepped up counter-espionage and
security effects. Don't you think that is worth a report?"
"You people don't seem to get it. If I report
this stuff as soon
as it happens it makes it that much easier for Briggs and his men
to hunt down the source of the leaks. I won't jeopardize my
cover or anyone else's over something like this. I must be able
to choose my own time, place and method of reporting activity
and transferring information."
T_
96 DALE BROWN
"It seems you are becoming a bit squeamish, Captain James,"
Moffitt said.
"You work with Harold Briggs and half the military security
police breathing down your neck all day .
"That's enough. Both of you."
Moffitt pressed. "I think Captain Kenneth James is becoming
comfortable in his surroundings," Moffitt said. "He makes a lot
of money, he has a nice apartment, attractive American women.
Could it be he does not want to risk losing his rich life for the
Soviet people?" Moffitt suddenly switched to Russian. "Re-
member, Captain? Your people? The ones you swore to protect?
The ones who gave you this mission-"
"Speak English, dammit," Maraklov ordered. Anger and
confusion were in his voice. Moffitt looked at him with some
surprise.
"Is it possible," Moffitt said in Russian, "you don't under-
stand what I'm saying? Or is this just a part of your little game,
Comrade Maraklov-?"
"Don't use that name. " Maraklov lowered his voice, but the
anger was in his face. "My name is Kenneth James. I'm from
Rhode Island. I'm an officer in the United States Air Force--
"You are Andrei Maraklov, II Moffitt pressed in Russian. "You
are a Russian KGB deep-cover agent assigned to the top-secret
Dreamland research laboratory in the United States. You--
"I said speak English . . . neighbors, they could hear you-"
"Can you hear me? What 'are you . . . an American or a
Russian-? "
"I don't understand a goddamned word you Ire saying. - He
turned to Kramer. "You'd better get him out of here, Kramer,
before he ruins the whole deal."
"You can drop the act," Moffitt said, this time in English.
"This is not a test in your Connecticut Academy--
"That is enough," Kramer told Moffitt, on his feet now.
"Stop trying to bait him-he is trained to deny any knowledge
of his past. " He turned to James. "But our North American
Command is concerned, Kenneth. You give them less each con-
tact. We were ordered to investigate. An immediate face-to-face
meeting was necessary-"
I 'Well, you've had it. I'll get the information, but tell them
I'm the only one who can control how and when I do it. It's
possible the level of security intervention is so high they'll be
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 97
forced to terminate the extensive searches soon. Otherwise no
one will be able to get any work done. But we've got to take it
easy. We can score a major espionage coup if we stay patient. "
He did not add that it was no act, his not understanding their
Russian. He really had lost it ... He hadn't quite realized. it
himself until now ...
"We cannot afford to be patient," Kramer said. "Our charge
is to use every means to acquire this technology and build the
DreamStar fighter plane. Our development of the aircraft must
be parallel with the Americans'. A great deal has been invested
to put you in place. For two years they've been patient. Now
progress has stopped. Something must be done-"
"If you're going to pressure me like this, I might as well stop
everything before I'm caught. You might as well bring me in-"
He shocked himself, saying it. It was the last thing he wanted.
Kramer looked at him. "An interesting suggestion."
"What? The Command is considering bringing me in? That's
ridiculous-"
"Why? "
"It's what they call biting off your nose to spite your face. I
am in place here, Kramer. Fully in place. It would take another
generation to develop another agent placed so high in the top-
secret American military research organization . . ."
Kramer took a deep breath. "The lack of information was the
last deciding factor, but the idea had started long ago-"
"What idea? What the hell is going on?"
"Our project to build our own version of the DrearnStar air-
craft was virtually doomed from the start. We knew about the
F-15 fighter known as the Cheetah, of course-the Americans
took it to the Paris Air Show. We built our own version shortly
afterward, and with improvements it has become almost as for-
midable as the American version. But when we discovered what
the Americans had planned for the next generation of fighter
aircraft . . . no one believed that thought-controlled aircraft
would become reality in his lifetime. Now suddenly the Amer-
icans had one in the air. Naturally we did everything in our
power to learn about the technology, including authorizing the
plan to put you in the Dreamland research area-"
"I don't see the problem, Kramer. Everything's going as
planned. "
"Not exactly."
98 DALE BROWN
Moffitt broke in. "Those big thinkers in Moscow can't un-
derstand the data. They've got it piled up to their ears but can't
really decipher it. They have linguists, but the Americans use
words that have no Russian equivalents. They say there are elec-
tronic parts made of atomic elements . . . I think that's it ...
that even some of our best scientists have never heard of.
"So it takes time. In a couple of years everything they don't
understand will be commonplace. Right now they have super
conducting circuitry that weighs two hundred pounds-in two
years or less they'll be putting superconductors in wrist-
watches-"
"Our people will not wait two years to build a thought-
controlled aircraft," Kramer said. "In two years the Americans
can replace their European-based fighter force with these
DreamStar aircraft. With an aircraft like DreamStar opposing
our forces, our conventional-force superiority will be offset. We
got them to reduce theirs and still leave us with an advantage.
A plane like this DreamStar can undo all our advantages. "
"But DreamStar is still in its early research phase. It won't
be ready for production for two years. They, might have a first
operational unit by the year two thousand but even that's an
optimistic estimate. " He looked at Kramer. "Whoever's feeding
you or the Command this stuff is dangerous, Kramer. They're
trying to push the Kremlin into making a false move, one that
could be embarrassing to the government and deadly for us. "
"What would you know about it?" Moffitt broke in. "You
don't even speak Russian any more. You've lost touch with your
country. What would you know about what goes on in the Krem-
lin?
Maraklov sidestepped the accusation to firmer ground. "I
know that someone has overestimated the progress on the
DreamStar project. You listen, Moffitt-this project is as much
mine as it is yours. It's my life if I get caught. I can be exe
cuted
or spend the rest of my life in prison. If you get caught you pull
out your diplomatic credentials and get yourself kicked out of
the country. Big deal-"
"I said enough," Kramer interjected. "Orders have already
been received from Moscow. They are what prompted and jus-
tified this meeting with you. The Ramenskoye Research Center
in Moscow reported that your data, although revealing, is still
not sufficient for them to reconstruct the XF-34 DrearnStar air-
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 99
craft. It is much more than copying the design and the compo-
nents-it seems they do not have the basic knowledge of the
technology involved with the craft. They estimate several years
before we will have the technology to duplicate the design with
sufficient quality to match the present-day aircraft." He paused,
then: "The KGB has been ordered to obtain the XF-34
vanced Weapons Center. Captain James, you are to steal
DrearnStar aircraft from the American High Technology Ad-
DreamStar and bring it to Moscow."
"Steal DreamStar? Impossible! Crazy!"
"Nevertheless, we have been ordered--
"I refuse. You would jeopardize all this work, all this time,
in an attempt to get a fighter out of the most heavily defended
military reservation in the United States?"
Moffitt finally let out what he had been thinking "He has
been turned, just as I thought-"
No hesitation, James rushed Moffitt, feinted with a right
roundhouse to Moffitt's head, stepped closer and put him on the
floor with a practiced kick in the groin.
He could hear Kramer trying quietly as he could to order him
to stop. He wasn't listening. As Moffitt crumpled unconscious
on the carpet, Maraklov grabbed the poker and held the point
on Moffitt's throat . . . "The first thing I'll do if they ever turn
me," he said, pressing the sharp iron shaft into Moffitt's Adam's
apple, "is hunt you down and kill you. Don't give me an excuse
to do it before then."
"Enough, " Kramer said, and grabbed away the poker.
Breathing heavily more from the adrenaline pui ping than