The Red Collusion Page 8

  The Minister’s directions to Gregory made the think tank members realize that it was again Yevgeni, with his healthy common sense and creativity, who had saved them from another painful head-on collision with the Minister. This young man is a genius, pure genius, and exceptionally brave, thought Dimitri.

  The Minister’s loud voice boomed out again.

  “Colonel Yevgeni will continue.”

  “Mr. Minister, I shall continue my briefing on the activity beginning tomorrow in Murmansk. After we install the equipment on the fishing boat and solve the issue with the bomb, we will sail out to sea with the submarine and conduct a full test. There are still two issues that we need to address thoroughly before the wet run at sea. Colonel Nazarbayev, together with other people, will have to finish all the preliminary computations that he needs to make regarding the precise location of the blast and the distance from the submarine. The second issue is that we don’t have the American submarines’ training schedule for the next few days. Naturally, this is essential so that we can lay in wait in the fishing boat for the submarine at the right place and at the right time.

  “In fact, we know their navigation courses very well, as they haven’t changed very much in the past few years. However, we don’t have the precise timetable of these navigation exercises. Dimitri, excuse me, Brigadier General Dimitri, has already made contact with our people in Washington and they are very optimistic. They believe they can provide us with all the missing data within two days. These are the main issues, Mr. Minister.”

  Marshal Budarenko went into a short huddle with the woman at his side and with another man who had arrived with him, but who had not yet joined in the discussion. After their confidential exchange, the Minister turned back to the team.

  “Now, assuming that the plan succeeds, though I still have my doubts”, he said, “I want you, Colonel Yevgeni, to start outlining the outcomes and consequences of our operation.”

  “Mr. Minister, you mean how the American submarine will react after its captain is led to believe that the United States has been attacked by one or more nuclear missiles?” asked Yevgeni.

  “Exactly.”

  “Mr. Minister, I propose that Brigadier General Dimitri present this scenario.”

  The Minister motioned impatiently with his hand as if saying, if you insist on Dimitri, then let it be Dimitri.

  The Brigadier General stood up and approached the Minister and his retinue.

  “If everything goes as planned and the American captain responds according to his orders”, said Brigadier General Dimitri, “his submarine will then launch what they call the first portion of two or three nuclear missiles on the Soviet Union. The submarines are equipped with either

  16 Poseidon missiles or 24 Trident missiles. After the launch of the first portion, the submarine Captain must wait for an order to launch the second salvo, but of course, in our case, this order will not arrive.”

  It was obvious that the Defense Minister did not like what he was hearing, and he was quick to cut Dimitri short.

  “Wait a minute, stop. Do we know, or can we know, in which direction these two or three missiles, what you call an appetizer, will be launched?” the Minister of Defense asked.

  “No, Mr. Minister. We have checked the issue thoroughly with our Washington people. It turns out that even this submarine Captain does not know where his missiles are aimed at. This is predetermined, and nobody in the submarine can interfere with the targets.”

  The Minister motioned restlessly at Dimitri, who stopped his presentation again. The Minister lit another cigarette and huddled again with his two experts.

  “I understand the significance of being hit with several nuclear-tipped missiles”, said the Minister. “On the other hand, I am actually encouraged that most of the 10,000 nuclear warheads that the Americans have are pre-assigned to targets, and I assume that most of the missiles are programmed to fall in our territory. So statistically, it is likely that the two or three missiles that we are hit with will not destroy our most important and highest-priority targets, out of the thousands of targets that the Americans have marked for destruction in case of all-out war. Furthermore, in the first stages of the war, I have no doubt that the Americans will not attack cities and population centers with nuclear weapons, except in response to such an act from us. It is most likely that their first target will be a heavy industry plant, an airport, or a seaport.”

  The Minister took another drag from his cigarette and leaned back to blow the smoke up towards the ceiling.

  “What I want to say is, I can live with that”, said the Minister after a pause. “Especially when the entire heavy industry of the German Federal Republic will fall intact into our hands during Stage B. This will be a pretty good compensation for the damage we will sustain from those two or three missiles.”

  It appeared that for the Minister of Defense, all this was just a game of chess on a wooden board. The Minister seemed to concern himself only with probable missile hits on the Soviet Union, assessing the damage that they could cause, without mentioning, even in one word, the casualties and panic that they could create. Thus, the minister concluded this scenario, with the laconic, chilling five-word sentence: “I can live with that.”

  Chapter 7

  Three hours had passed since the five members of the special team had boarded the Antonov 12 transport plane from Moscow to the northern port city of Murmansk. The loud, monotonous noise created by the plane’s four turboprop engines all but prevented the team members from holding a conversation. Colonel Yevgeni had to shout into the ear of his colleague Brigadier General Dimitri.

  “Can you hear me?”

  “More or less. Talk loudly and slowly”, Dimitri shouted back.

  “You remember what we said about our sixth team member, the hard to identify fellow? His name is Vladimir, right?”

  “Yes, Vladimir, from Military Intelligence, who is following our every move”, Dimitri concurred.

  “Exactly. Here is proof that we were right. We decided that the four of us would go - you, myself, Nazarbayev and the General - and suddenly we are five again.”

  “Yes, you’re absolutely right. In fact, only Sergei, the Minister’s assistant, isn’t with us.”

  “We are taking a risk”, said Yevgeni, “by conducting all the tests in Murmansk, of all places. It is our largest naval base and the closest to Western countries, and I’m sure that the Americans focus their intelligence resources there and that Murmansk is constantly monitored.”

  “It makes sense, Yevgeni. But we don’t have time to travel to the proving grounds on the other side of the country, like the one in Lensk, for example.

  “Murmansk, for us, is like a huge supermarket. All you need to do is reach out to the shelf and take whatever you want. You want a fishing boat? You got it. You want a nuclear assault submarine? It’s yours that same day. Over there in the East and at this time of year, the weather could shut us down for quite a few days. What would we do then? Do you think that you can make up another story for the Minister?” Dimitri asked.

  Yevgeni did not answer, and Dimitri continued: “Maybe the Minister prefers us in the east because it is closer to the gulags of Siberia.”

  “Very funny”, Yevgeni protested at Dimitri’s grim joke.

  After another hour of noisy travel, the wheels of the military transport plane hit the snow-lined tarmac of the airport near Murmansk. The city of Murmansk lies north of the Arctic Circle, not far from Finland’s eastern border and on the coast of the Barents Sea, the northern waters of which were frozen already at this time of year.

  A young officer, wearing a blue Navy uniform, greeted them as they disembarked from the plane. Wasting no time, he led them to two official black Lada cars parked, with engines running, next to the transport plane. Within half an hour, they had arrived at the massive iron gates of the large naval base. The younge
r officer exchanged a few words with the soldiers manning the checkpoint, and they were waved in through the gates, which opened to their full width. The official cars continued driving in the snow – it had been snowing nonstop before their arrival – until they stopped outside an isolated building at the center of the base. The young officer pointed towards the building.

  “Rear Admiral Ilya Leonov, the Base Commandant, is expecting you here. Please follow me, officers.”

  The five team members and their escort walked up the wide staircase to the second floor of the building and into the well-heated office of the Commandant. Rear Admiral Leonov received them very warmly. Brigadier General Dimitri, the Navy man, was greeted with an embrace. The two had known each other for years.

  Rear Admiral Leonov, at 55 years of age, seemed more like a senior official of the party than an old seaman. He was short in height and full in width and his blue Navy jacket was custom-tailored to accommodate his protruding belly. His hair was thin and white, and his cheeks were full and ruddy.

  The office walls were paneled in a dark wood and covered with many photos of the Admiral, models of various naval vessels and unit insignia and coats of arms, marking the many high points of the Admiral’s career. He invited his guests to sit at a table in a corner of the room. A seaman wearing the Navy dress uniform entered the room with a tray and placed it on the table. The tray held a variety of sandwiches, but above all, a steaming tea kettle.

  “How was the flight?” asked Rear Admiral Leonov.

  “Noisy and tiring”, Dimitri replied without elaborating.

  “We have prepared a meal for you in the senior officers’ residence. The conditions there are excellent. You can rest there for a while and freshen up, and tomorrow you will be as good as new”, the Admiral said, looking round at his guests.

  “Your liaison Gregory sent me a full list of your requests for personnel and equipment”, he continued, “and all is already prepared and ready for you. To accommodate your request, I’ve cancelled a scheduled exercise for one of our most advanced submarines, which was due to leave tomorrow. From tomorrow, this submarine and its crew are under your command. Shall we meet in the morning, then?”

  Yevgeni answered for the team.

  “Sir, as the head of the team, I would like to thank you for your hospitality and for your swift and efficient preparations for us.”

  “Hold on, Colonel”, the Admiral interrupted him, shifting his gaze again and again from Yevgeni to Dimitri to General Okhramenko. “I want to understand; you are a colonel, right?”

  “True.”

  Yevgeni already understood where his host was heading with his question.

  “So how is it that you are heading a team which includes a General and a Brigadier General?”

  Brigadier General Dimitri, the Admiral’s friend, put his hand on Yevgeni’s shoulder as if to tell him, please leave this matter to me.

  “This is a very special team”, said Dimitri, “and this Yevgeni is simply a genius. Every time we reached a dead end, he was the only one who knew how to get us all out of it and continue in a new direction. Even Marshal Budarenko, of all people, was impressed by his fantastic abilities, and that is why he appointed Yevgeni to lead the team.”

  Rear Admiral Leonov was still perplexed, but finally said, “If Marshal Budarenko so decided, then I have no doubt that he made the best decision for all of you. You, Colonel, couldn’t receive a better compliment than this.”

  Colonel Yevgeni thanked the Admiral with a slight bow of the head and decided to cut short the small talk and to get to the reason for their being there.

  “Rear Admiral Leonov, I understand that you were requested to designate for us three teams of the best of your people in order for us to start work immediately.”

  “That’s right”, replied the Rear Admiral. “We’ve put together three teams, and all of them are already here at the base. The first team is made up of explosives and sea ordnance specialists. The second is made up of experts in communications and electronic warfare, and the third includes operations research specialists and math prodigies, or something like that. Tomorrow morning you will meet all of them.”

  “Excellent”, Yevgeni replied curtly. “But I have something to ask of you. I apologize that we are not allowed to disclose the subject that we are dealing with at the moment, but to have a good night’s sleep, or even to have a rest, is a luxury we cannot afford. We are under supervision, and Marshal Budarenko is watching us now from Moscow, and we shouldn’t be surprised if he suddenly lands here with no prior notice. I want to meet with the three teams now. Each of us will work with his relevant team until we get answers and make progress, even if it continues throughout the night. Therefore, can you please call your teams to work now, maybe in a few minutes?”

  The Admiral’s expression made it clear that he was still dissatisfied, if not annoyed, by Yevgeni, that thin, strange-looking Colonel. The Admiral was still trying to understand how the Colonel, who did not even look like a military officer, was dispensing orders to a General, and especially to a General of the old school. Moreover, it seemed to him that the Colonel did not even appreciate the Admiral’s hospitality and the great resources that he was allocating to the unprepossessing Colonel on the vast naval base over which he ruled like a demigod. However, since the Colonel had come on a mission on behalf of Marshal Budarenko, and under his direct orders, the Admiral understood that he would do well to overlook the bad manners and keep his cool, and especially his head, and do exactly as instructed by the Colonel. He lifted his heavy figure from his seat, went to his desk and pressed the intercom button. He was answered by the voice of a young man. The senior naval officer shot a string of short orders into the intercom and returned to his guests.

  Notwithstanding the urgency, Dimitri exchanged niceties and small talk with the Admiral for a few minutes, asking after his family, his wife and two sons.

  The intercom emitted a discordant buzzing sound. The Admiral pushed the blinking button and increased the sound volume on the box.

  “Yes”, he replied sharply.

  “Sir, I was informed that most of the personnel have been located and they will wait for you in 15 minutes’ time in the main conference room at Naval Intelligence.”

  Colonel Yevgeni turned to his friend Dimitri and whispered in his ear.

  “I thank you for the knowledgeable explanation you gave the Admiral. Next time we raise the subject, please ask our friend the General to explain.” Yevgeni leaned back in his chair and winked at Dimitri.

  The five left the Admiral to meet the three work teams that were already waiting for them. As they were walking in the snow, which had been falling since they arrived at the base, Dimitri clutched Yevgeni’s arm.

  “Yevgeni, I hope you’re not taking the compliments that I am making up about you too seriously. The last thing I want is for you to start believing my lies.”

  “Yes, I’ve already got that”, Yevgeni said sardonically. “By the way, Brigadier General, as my personal attendant, you were derelict in your duty to light me a cigarette every hour on the hour. Is my health not important to you anymore?”

  The Naval Intelligence building was surrounded by a tall wire fence. At the entrance gate, a naval lieutenant greeted them with a salute. According to his chest insignia, he was a submariner. He led them inside and gave them a short tour.

  “Good evening, gentlemen. My name is Alexey Buchenko, and I will be attached to you 24 hours a day. I will coordinate everything that you require here on the base. Here, in this building, you can work under the best conditions. This building is compartmentalized externally and internally. Your accommodations are here, just across the room. By the way, your luggage has already been distributed in the rooms. Please follow me.”

  As they walked in, Brigadier General Dimitri turned to Alexey.

  “Lieutenant Alexey, on which submarine a
re you serving?”

  “K-219, Navaga Class, Brigadier General.”

  The young submarine officer felt great pride when he named the nuclear assault submarine that he was serving on, which was state of the art and the pride of the submarine fleet.

  Colonel Yevgeni was the first to enter the conference room on the second floor of the Intelligence building. The room contained some 15 officers, men and women, and they all rose to attention in unison as Marshal Budarenko’s special team entered the room. They continued to stand as Yevgeni and his other team members took their seats at the conference table. Yevgeni motioned to them to be seated.

  “Good evening, everyone”, he said.

  “Good evening, Colonel”, the teams replied, almost in unison.

  “We have a shared mission of the utmost importance to our Armed Forces and to the Soviet Union, and we shall execute it as well and as quickly as possible. That is why you were brought here without delay. We shall now split up into three teams, and each team will be joined by one of my men. Because there is a need for continuous communication between the teams, the most efficient way is for all three teams to be working in the same room. Therefore, we shall split up into three groups here in this room. The ordnance and explosives team will assemble in the left-hand corner of the room. You will be led and guided by Colonel Nazarbayev”, Yevgeni said, pointing to the Kazakh Colonel.

  “Those of you in the communications and electronic warfare team will get together in the right-hand corner. You will be headed by General Okhramenko.”

  Yevgeni placed his hand on the General’s shoulder in a gesture that seemed patronizing to most of those present, coming from an officer of an inferior rank.

  “The third team is made up of the operations research and mathematics specialists. Please come here; you will be working with me. The two remaining members of our team will alternate between the teams. Let’s go!”