‘What might give rise to that?’
‘China, perhaps? If the proposed escalation of the present border war goes through, for example; if the Kosygin faction bows under current Army pressure, the Politburo could easily divide itself. As you know there is strong political opposition to any escalation. And that could be the moment for this Sixth Directorate to move. That’s one scenario. There are others.’
Andropov said nothing, thinking for half a minute. His expression, with that of the others round the table, had become more than serious, it was numb. ‘Could any of this really be so?’ they all seemed to be asking, ‘Have we taken this charade too far?’
‘Aren’t we taking this game a little too far?’ Vassily Chechulian said. ‘It seems to me we are presupposing something too clever by half.’ He turned to Flitlianov. ‘Much as I acknowledge and admire your skills, Alexei, I doubt if even you could pull such a scheme off. The profile you’re drawing here, the head of this Sixth Directorate — he must be either a fool or a superman: the vast hazards you’ve contrived for him in your projections could make him no less than one or the other. There’s too much — far too much — that could go wrong. I may believe in the existence of some sort of “Directorate” as you’ve outlined it, but I don’t believe for a second that it has a chance of ever getting to the starting gate. Principally because your own Directorate, Alexei — the real Second Directorate — would find out about it long before that. Your internal security hasn’t been exactly lax recently, Alexei. You’ve clearly marked out and curtailed every other dissident movement. Why should you fail with this one?’
No one spoke. Then Flitlianov said slowly and good-naturedly: ‘Those are all fair points, Vassily. I agree with you. I hope I do get this group. I’m sure I will. But for the moment I haven’t.’
Andropov nodded in agreement. ‘That’s why we’re making these projections, Vassily, to give us something to aim at. And we should always allow for the most unlikely targets.’
Grigori Rahv, the engineer, had been anxious to prove his worth for some time. Now he leant forward, settling the folds of his fine new suit. ‘I tend to agree with Vassily. I think we may be getting off the track. The centre of this clandestine operation may not be in the KGB — or in the Politburo. Let’s take a look at some likely targets.’ He turned to Andropov. ‘This typewritten newsletter that’s been causing so much trouble recently, the Chronicle of Current Events — surely someone connected with that is the man we want, someone you’ve not caught up with yet — head of an outside group that has contacts, merely, inside the KGB — the voices our man in London heard being some of them, or all of them. Shouldn’t we simply intensify our crackdown on these dissident movements, this newsletter?’
Andropov sighed quietly. But Alexei was brightly placatory. ‘I think you might be right, Grigori. But I have had no authorisation to raise the pressure on these dissident movements. My directive’ — he looked at Andropov — ‘has been to handle them very carefully during the current rapprochement with the US.’
‘Surely that can now be changed — if the security of the State is at risk — as I assume it is?’ Rahv asked quickly.
‘Yes, Grigori,’ Andropov replied. ‘That can be changed. We’re hoping to start just such a crackdown as you suggest. It’s with the Politburo now, waiting their final assent. Suslov will get that for us. Unfortunately I can’t agree that the centre of this group lies outside the KGB, in any dissident intellectual movement. The reason is simple: this clandestine group is obviously one of long standing, well entrenched, extremely carefully organised and run: it has all the marks, in fact, of a bona fide KGB operation. Now, no outside organisation could have successfully maintained such an operation for so long — they would have been discovered long ago. Yet as part of the KGB they could remain undetectable — as they have done. Our man has chosen welclass="underline" he has chosen to infiltrate the KGB because we alone can offer him the unique lever which could bring about this political change. Tacitly, we hold the political direction of the country in our hands. Our man is in this organisation quite simply because he knows where the reins are. The actual power for political change behind the Chronicle of Current Events — for all that it may worry us in other ways — wouldn’t light a torch bulb. No, we have to imagine a man who is among us. Let’s continue with our profile of him. Right, Alexei, you want my job. You’re capable of doing it?’
‘Yes. I must assume so.’
‘At the moment therefore you hold some considerably senior rank?’
‘Yes.’
Andropov was much encouraged. ‘Good.’ He turned, looking round the table. ‘We are beginning to see something now, a senior man, bringing outsiders into the KGB — a careful difficult job, time-consuming. So I think we can assume — if they have men in London — that this directorate started some time ago: ten, more like twenty years ago. Or even before that. During the war perhaps. And this may give us the reasons which started it. We’re somewhere in the early forties or late thirties. We’re at the end of the Moscow trials, gentlemen; the Stalin — Hitler pact. Those events could well encourage dissension in the mind of some young NKVD recruit of the time. So what do we see? A dissenter, therefore an intellectual in his student days during the late thirties; good army career, almost certainly as an intelligence officer, joined us sometime between 1945 and 1950 — at the very latest. Well, we shall have the files on all such recruits — Savitsky? Will you make a note?’
The head of Management, Personnel and Finance nodded. ‘I had already thought along such lines, sir. The files reflecting such a profile are ready.’
Andropov made no acknowledgment of this initiative, continuing instead his enthusiastic chase with Flitlianov: ‘Now how many people do you have with you in your Sixth Directorate, Alexei?’
‘Well, if I’ve been recruiting for, say, twenty years — but having to be extremely careful over who I choose — I’d say I’d picked up someone about once a month. Say — around two hundred people now.’
‘What sort of people, Alexei? What jobs are you placing them in? Which Directorate would it be most to your advantage to control — when the “moment” came?’
‘Obviously my own, the Second Directorate — internal security throughout the Union, on the spot, ready — as you say — for the “moment”.’
‘Yes, of course.’ Andropov thought once more. ‘Except they’d lack mobility in the Second Directorate and be highly exposed to any investigation. And I don’t think you’d keep all your eggs in one basket, Alexei. You’d have some of your men overseas I think — as an alternative group, men who could start the whole thing again. That would be the normal procedure, wouldn’t it?’
‘Yes. The group would be in the usual cell form, each one self-contained, with complete cut-outs between them — no links, each one headed by a deputy.’
‘You’d use the block cut-out. You’d know each of your deputies — ’
‘No. I’d use the other process: the chain cut-out. I would know my first deputy; he would have recruited the next and so on. And each deputy would have recruited his own staff. Thus I would know, by name, only a very small proportion of the entire group: this would give us a chance to regroup in the event of myself or any deputy being caught.’
‘That first deputy is an important figure then, isn’t he, Alexei? If we took you — we’d have to be sure we could get him too. If he went to ground properly we’d be no further on at all in the affair. We’d have to be certain that he never had any warning that you’d been cracked for example, or that we were on to you.’