Eagle receiving.
I sensed Sinitsin closing in from my right side.
"You are in danger," he said, "but you have obtained information and may be able to obtain more."
I sat doing nothing while the interpreter put the Russian into Chinese for Tung Kuo-feng, then as Tung began speaking in English I hit the transmit lever.
"There is a Russian connection," he said. "The operation is being run from Moscow."
I gave it straight to Ferris, but had to use speech-code because even among people who speak only their own language there are many who pick up foreign words: most English people know niet, parachik, so forth. This applies particularly to the names of people and cities, and a KGB Colonel would know the English for «Russian» and «Moscow», and if I hadn't used «bearish» and "Place Rouge" Sinitsin would have dragged me away from the radio and told Yang to wipe me out, this time for real.
It was like moving slowly through a minefield, and there was a lot to think about. Tung had opened up with a hot signal, and I'd had to control my reaction. The last thing the KGB wanted anyone to know was that there was a Russian connection, and as I sat here waiting for Sinitsin to give me the next item of dezinformatsiya I knew that I'd just dropped an intelligence bomb in the signals room of the British Embassy; depending on the turnaround facilities there, it could be known in London within minutes from now that Moscow was behind the assassinations in Pekin.
I wiped the sweat off my face as I waited.
Sinitsin spoke. "The Pekin assassinations were designed to divert both world and intelligence attention from the actual operation Tung Kuo-feng is running."
I sat listening to the interpreter.
We'd passed the first hump in the minefield but there would be so many others. Whenever Sinitsin spoke, I must remember not to react, but to wait for the translation. Whenever Tung spoke to me in English I had to assess what he wanted Ferris to know, and if I didn't like it I would have to try inserting an «ignore» keyword by careful rephrasing, and that would be dangerous because he might realise what I was doing. I had to use speech-code for any words Tung gave me that Sinitsin might understand, like «Russian» or «Moscow», and I must hope that Tung would know why I was doing it. I had to listen for any internationally known names or words — «Pekin», "airport", so forth — spoken by Sinitsin and put them faithfully into the final signal so that he would hear them: because he'd be listening for them; and Tung would have to do the same. At the same time I had to insert an «ignore» key to cover them, because they'd stand out oddly in the message. If Tung didn't understand what I was doing, he couldn't ask me, because Sinitsin would want to know what we were talking about.
While I waited for the interpreter to finish I thought over what Sinitsin had just told me to send. The Pekin assassinations were designed to divert world and intelligence attention from the actual operation Tung Kuo-feng is running. "Pekin" and "Tung Kuo-feng" would have to go in.
When the interpreter had finished Tung leaned over me. "The Pekin only chance of stopping the operation is by finding and releasing Chuan, Tung Kuo-feng's abducted son."
He was on to what we had to do: he'd inserted «Pekin» at the beginning and got his own name in the right place near the end, using exactly nineteen words, as Sinitsin had. If we could work together like this we had a chance, but it would need only one slip, and Sinitsin was listening hard.
I opened transmission. "The Pekin, really, only chance of stopping… " It was the only "ignore we had to insert.
We all waited.
"Message understood so far." Ferris.
He wouldn't be worried by the «ignore» keyword «really». He would be cautious, but not worried. He was already wondering at the delay between my first and second transmissions, and would almost certainly realise I wasn't alone; he would be listening carefully to the tone of my voice, alert for any stress tones or background sounds; but he would know that the signal as a whole could be trusted and that I was sending what I wanted to send; without duress; otherwise I would have thrown in a priority «discount» key right at the outset and the only reason he would have gone on listening would be to hear what kind of disinformation the opposition was trying to feed him, and to respond with formal acknowledgements to give the impression he accepted the signal.
When they'd led me to the radio I'd tried to angle my chair slightly so that I could press down the transmit lever without anyone seeing, so that Ferris would hear the Russian and Chinese in the background; but it hadn't been possible: Sinitsin and his aides had been watching for that.
I looked up at him now, wanting him to know that the transmission had been acknowledged. He began speaking again.
"The Tung operation is aimed at a mock overthrow of the Kim Sung presidency of North Korea, ostensibly by a South Korean terrorist group, followed by an immediate counter coup and a full military invasion of South Korea and the installation of a Communist government."
The interpreter took it up and passed it to Tung Kuo-feng.
I sat waiting, conscious that Ferris too was waiting, and wondering at the delay; but he had some data to work on: he knew I spoke fluent Russian and that there was a Russian connection; he might guess I was concealing the fact that I spoke Russian, and was speaking through an interpreter; he would know I'd reached the monastery and made contact with Tung, because of the information I was sending; but he wouldn't know why I was having to insert sporadic «ignore» keys as I went along.
Tung began speaking. He'd remembered my use of «bearish» for «Russian» and used it now, putting his own name early in the phrasing and putting in the names of Kim Sung, North and South Korea and Communist; I'd been waiting for Sinitsin to pounce at any moment, but I should have realised that Tung, chief of a formidable Triad, would be capable of working out the game we had to play; and he knew that the better he played it the more chance he had of seeing his son again.
Minus the necessary repetition of the names Sinitsin was listening for, and minus the relevant «ignore» keys, Tung's transmission read: Chuan Tung is held by Russian agents somewhere in South Korea. His location and release would bring the operation to an immediate stop, so you must do utmost. Tung ready to expose Russians' objective, which is to destroy Chinese-American relations.
I lifted the transmit lever and waited on automatic receive. I'd had to use «subject» for the second «Tung», and "Red Indian" for «American», because «American», "States", "United States", «USA», "US", "Uncle Sam" and «Yank», "Yanks", «Yankee» might be understandable to Sinitsin. For five or six seconds there was silence in the room except for the low hum of the transceiver.
"Message understood."
I didn't relax until the silence continued for another few seconds after Ferris acknowledged. Sinitsin would have jumped straight in with a question if he'd had one. Ferris himself was less of a worry: he knew he daren't ask any one of a dozen questions he was wanting to — my reasons for speech-code and «ignore» keys, and so forth; their presence alone warned him of danger.
"He doesn't sound very surprised," Sinitsin said.
I looked blank and turned to Tung Kuo-feng and waited for the translation to come through, at the same time thinking out the answer. When I was ready I said through Tung and the Korean: "In our trade, Colonel, there aren't many things left that can surprise us, don't you agree? And your transmission's being relayed to London, so he's not going to hold things up by any questions. Do you have more?"
"Yes."
He began on the next phase.