Pearson longed to dig into the fresh information, but shook her head. The station came first.
“In an hour, Donna”
An hour and twenty minutes passed before they completed checking the last civilian laboratory and residential spaces. In the far end of Module Six, contracted to Dow, she had to caution the three chemists about securing unattended lab equipment, but otherwise the inspection was routine.
By the time she got back to her office in the Command Center, Donna Amber had transferred all of the incoming data files to Pearson’s work station and she began scanning them immediately.
A CIA field agent in Berlin had located Yuri Pronnikov working incognito as a waiter in a relative’s restaurant, and that left Pearson with five suspected Mako pilots.
There were no more reports on the other possible pilots as yet, but Pearson was more interested in the names turned up by Brackman.
Shelepin, Pavel, and Druzhinin.
The first name had been one of hers, but the other two were new. Accompanying the names were the CIA dossiers on all three men.
In a separate batch of records, already translated from the Russian, were the old Soviet military records for the three. There was no source identifier on the copied records, and she supposed Brackman or Thorpe had been in touch with General Sheremetevo.
She spent over an hour reading through the extensive files, eliminating items that had been guesswork by the CIA and combining the factual items.
The three men had a number of things in common. They were all in their sixties; they had all held flag rank in the old Soviet military; they had all been staunch members of the Communist Party; they had all grown up together, professionally and politically.
And they had all departed Mother Russia hurriedly at the same time.
Pearson thought that was very interesting.
The details in their military records outlined the times they had been assigned to common commands, which was frequent, and the times they had been decorated or commended by superiors, many of whom were now doing hard time as a result of Commonwealth trials for traitorous activities. The resulting picture in Pearson’s mind was one of men tightly bonded by similar interests and pursuits.
It was not a hell of a lot of convincing evidence, of course.
Also interesting was the fact that Anatoly Shelepin had been assigned as Stavka liaison to the military intelligence directorate for clandestine activities, the Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye (GRU). He had been the paymaster for covert funds. The position not only gave him access to cash, but to military and political intelligence gathered from all over the world.
Sergei Pavel, also, had had the same opportunities for funds and information. As an assistant secretary in the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, he had been in direct contact with foreign intelligence gathering. Within the First Chief Directorate, he had been assigned to Directorate K, foreign intelligence and security penetration, and had been especially active in the Sixth Department, which had been responsible for China, Vietnam, Kampuchea, and Korea.
Oleg Druzhinin was an ex-Red Air Force commander of fighter interceptor groups. He had been with Shelepin in Afghanistan, and Maslov had been assigned to both of them at one time or another.
Pearson liked what she was seeing. On her left console screen, she typed a new listing:
LEADERSHIP: Shelepin, Favel, Druzhinin
RANK AND FILE: Maslov, Averyanov, Nikitin Bryntsev, Yevstigneyev
She looked at the names and thought about their files, then added:
PURPOSE: Unknown (Communist?)
FUNDING: Shelepin access to funds, Pavel access to funds
Reading through the files again, she noted that, except for Pavel, none of the men had served for any length of time outside the boundaries of the old Soviet Union, discounting Afghanistan. Pavel had done extended temporary duty tours in each of the countries covered by the Sixth Department. She keyed in the possibilities.
LOCALE: China, Vietnam, Kampuchea, or Korea
Although she fully realized that she was still working with a general theory, based on little substantiated evidence, Pearson felt as if she were getting somewhere. There were enough common ties and capabilities revealed in documentation about the principals, as well as the general factor of their defections, to begin outlining an organization.
She switched to the center screen and quickly wrote a memorandum:
CLASS: TOP SECRET
TO: David Thorpe, Gen., G2, USAFSC
FROM: Amelia Pearson, Col., Dep Cmdr, G2, USSC-1
REF: Operation FIND
1. The attached outline is still speculative, but sufficient evidence exists to suggest a higher than normal probability for such an organization.
2. A location in China or Korea seems unlikely, given current political situations, and Kampuchea and Vietnam should be given higher priority.
3. Request NSA redeployment of satellite surveillance to affected target countries.
4. Request CIA and DIA intensified effort in affected target countries relative to location of principals.
Pearson hit the intercom button for the radio shack. “Amber, Colonel.”
“Coming your way, Donna,” she said and sent the memo and outline for encoding and transmission.
Anatoly Shelepin crossed the gravelled center of his compound in Phnom Penh and entered the second house on the west side. This house had been renovated into office, work, and laboratory areas, and he found his chemists at work on the second floor.
“What is your progress, Comrade Weiss?” he asked the head chemist.
Weiss, nearly seventy years old, had once headed a major chemical complex in East Germany. He waved his hand at the pile of fuel pellets on the stainless steel table. They had been retrieved from the MakoShark as soon as Maslov had returned with it.
“The composition is amazingly simple, Comrade Shelepin. We have determined all of the elements, and now we are conducting random tests to be certain that the proportions are consistent and exact.”
“Excellent. And production?”
“Production will be much less complex than I had expected. We will require a site for the factory.”
“As soon as you provide me the specifications,” Shelepin said, “I will arrange for an appropriate plant.”
Weiss trudged to a desk at the side of the room and picked up several sets of paper. He handed them to Shelepin with a small smile of satisfaction.
“Already complete, Comrade.”
“Again, excellent, Comrade Weiss. I will have Sergei Pavel locate a suitable site.”
“If we could find an abandoned chemical factory,” Weiss said, “we can be producing as much fuel as you will need within three weeks.”
The four camouflaged hills had been rolled away from the runway.
The late morning shadows spread purplish-black tones over everything in sight. Beneath the fringes of the jungle, ii was still black, almost frightening.
General Oleg Druzhinin left the control center and crossed to the runway. The humidity was high, and the perspiration gathered quickly on his forehead. He took his cap off and wiped the sweat away with his forearm.
The MakoShark was sitting in the middle of the runway. Several ground crewmen moved about it as it was prepared for flight. The small tanker truck with the jet engine fuel started its engine and drove slowly away.
Druzhinin approached the craft and found Maslov and Nikitin ready to start up the ladders to their cockpits. He saw that the former names on their helmets had been removed and their own names had been precisely painted in white paint against the blue plastic coating.