There was something on his mind, and it showed.
“Go on, Andrey, spit it out.”
“Your new found friendship with Colonel General Kaganovich…”
“Go on.”
“Perhaps you could take advantage of it and find out what the NKVD knows about all of this, Comrade General?”
Nazarbayev feigned horror at the idea.
“What? Share with the Chekists?”
“We’re supposed to be on the same side, after all.”
“I will think on it, Andrey.”
Her voice trailed off into a tired low tone.
Poboshkin ventured to state the obvious.
“Perhaps we’ll see matters more clearly after a good sleep, Comrade General?”
“Very possibly.”
She laughed and yawned, all in one distorted action.
“You are dismissed, Comrade. Sleep well.”
He took his leave with a less than impressive salute.
Ten minutes later, the night duty officer found his commander fast asleep, and covered her over with a greatcoat.
Chapter 137 – THE COUNTDOWN
Espionage, for the most part, involves finding a person who knows something, or has something that you can induce them secretly to give to you. That almost always involves a betrayal of trust.
The opportunity to test her new relationship with the NKVD deputy came sooner than she expected, as Nazarbayeva was woken at seven-thirty by a messenger with orders for her to report to Moscow, where she would be required to deliver an intelligence assessment on Allied Spring intentions.
To her surprise, Beria was absent, apparently away inspecting a new facility near Stalingrad.
Kaganovich was there in his stead, complete with all the NKVD files regarding potential Allied operations.
His remit was broader, and so reports of possible Allied activity in Iran and the southern borders were new to the GRU General. Neither was she aware of the assessments regarding potential seaborne invasion of Siberia. Both of these were substantiated by reports from her peers in the Southern and Pacific GRU commands.
Projections for Europe were less clear although, inexplicably, Kaganovich could supply perfect copies of the original Norwegian recon photographs.
The Soviet system and, in particular, the traditional rivalry between GRU and NKVD, was sometimes less than helpful to the Motherland.
On the matter of Norway, the two seemed to reach agreement, and swift access to extra information on both sides reinforced the reasoning behind the advice to treat any Norwegian operation as maskirovka.
Stalin grunted as the two gave their conclusion, understanding that the two Intelligence Officers had an ability to work together, something traditionally absent between GRU and NKVD officers. He wasn’t sure that he liked it, as divide and conquer had been his life-long way of working.
Nazarbayeva delivered her assessment of the Baltic first, and understood the GKO’s frustration with her recommendations which, basically, amounted to ‘cater for everything until more information comes to hand’.
Kaganovich could add little to the assessment, save some reports from agents in Poland that suggested increased friction and factionalisation between the two Polish Armies. Stalin directed immediate exploration of any divide between the leaderships of the Polish units.
However, Kaganovich did bring something very interesting to the table; the photographs and written report of Captain Jabulov of submarine S-22.
The photos did the rounds of the table, and drew some admiring words on their quality, as well as excited chatter on the content.
Kaganovich became aware that the photos were not getting back to him, the pile in front of Georgy Malenkov growing by the second.
The Minister responsible for Aircraft Production suddenly leapt into action, sweeping up every one of the photos and moving around to Stalin’s side, all in one easy motion.
Encouraging the General Secretary to move out of earshot, a hurried discussion took place, laced with frequent finger pointing at two particular photographs.
Judging by the Minister’s face, the conversation clearly went against him.
Both men resumed their positions at the conference table, Malenkov tight-lipped and clearly perturbed.
The General Secretary felt the need to push his man into action.
“Tell them.”
Malenkov reluctantly dropped the two pictures to one side, tapping them both to draw the other’s attention to the content.
“This is a large explosive bomb; in its own right it is impressive but it is also built to resemble, in every way, another and different special kind of bomb.”
Heads craned, assessing the size against the objects photographed with the ‘thing’ to establish scale.
“Needless to say, Comrades, this matter is of the utmost secrecy, but we are working on a weapon of immense power that also more than resembles this… err… conventional bomb.”
That was, perhaps unsurprising, given that their agents had provided them with considerable information of the Fat Man bomb.
The existence of an Atomic weapons programme was news to a few of those present, who had never seen any of the reports from GRU and NKVD agents within the Manhattan Project.
Most of those in the room knew that Malenkov also wore the hat of Head of Research and Production for the Soviet Atomic Energy Programme.
Stalin took the lead.
“So it seems that our enemies are practising with their normal bombs before they use the improved ones, Comrades. Our agents have reported nothing?”
His eyes alternated between Kaganovich and Kuznetsov, NKVD and GRU commanders, seeking verification of his claim, or additional information if available.
Kuznetsov, recently returned from a long bout of ill-health, took the plunge.
“If I may speak freely in front of our Comrades, Comrade General Secretary?”
Stalin respected and liked the relatively young GRU Colonel General, and took the point fully.
“Comrades, nothing that is spoken of in this room may be spoken of outside of it. There are no exceptions.”
His eyes swept the assembly for any sign of dissent.
“Continue, Comrade Polkovnik General.”
“Comrade General Secretary, according to our current information, the Amerikanski are still some way from producing a viable type-2 device, their last attempted test also resulted in failure.”
Nazarbayeva paid full attention to the world that was slowly exposed to her, although she shuddered naturally when specifics about field agents were mentioned..
“Between us, the NKVD and GRU have seven agents well-placed within the innermost workings of their programme, and we have had reports regarding all sorts of problems, from basic geometry to advanced physics. All of which have set back the Amerikanski programme.”
Pausing whilst Stalin fired up his pipe, Kuznetsov took the opportunity to fire an apologetic look at his European Commander, whose face, he felt, indicated her unhappiness at being excluded from everything in the first place.
He had no idea that Nazarbayeva been part of a briefing on the Atomic programme before, and therefore had worked out the existence of the full project.
None the less, the detail being laid bare now was all new to her.
Stalin’s cough brought him back to the matter in hand.
“These photos, made available to us by the diligence of our Naval comrades, clearly indicate that the Amerikanski intend to deliver this weapon by air, and using this type of aircraft. This confirms what we suspected from their intended Japanese use.”
He silently offered Kaganovich an opportunity to take up the baton, and the NKVD officer took the opportunity, nodding to the GRU Commander.