The Main Enemy Milton Bearden (read full novel .txt) 📖

duty. He was a straightforward, uncomplicated man, a trait that seemed slightly odd inside the byzantine world of intelligence. But he was also an excellent linguist who picked up languages easily, and he was a careful traditionalist about his espionage tradecraft. He had spied in both Beijing and Moscow, was fluent in Chinese and Russian, and knew more about “denied area” work than just about all the instructors at the Farm combined. During his first tour in Moscow in the 1970s, he had handled TRIGON; now, Gerber was calling him back, and Moscow was to be his. Gerber told him his task was to rebuild the Soviet spy networks that had been so devastated by the 1985 losses.

No matter how many times he had taken the overnight train from Moscow to Leningrad, Jack Downing found it difficult to sit still throughout the more than eight-hour journey aboard the jewel of the Soviet Union’s railroad system. The Krasnaya Strelka, the Red Arrow, had pulled out of Moscow’s Leningrad station just before midnight, but it wouldn’t arrive at Leningrad’s Moscow station until nearly 8:30 A.M. It was inevitable that he would, at some point in the long night, desperately need a cigarette.

It was just after dawn when Downing left his wife and daughter behind in their first-class compartment, threw open the doors between the rocking cars, and walked haltingly back to the Red Arrow’s caboose. Spring was arriving in the Soviet Union, and it was just warm enough for Downing to grab a quick smoke in the open air.

“Jek?”

Cigarette in hand, Downing turned quickly and saw a dark young Russian man with flashing eyes and a broad smile.

“Yes,” Downing replied, instantly sensing that he was talking with a KGB man. The two were alone at the back of the train, with the wind and the noise of the rails masking their meeting, yet the Russian was still too cautious to say anything further. The man pressed an envelope into Downing’s hand and hurried away, back into the darkness of the train’s corridor. Downing’s case officer instincts suddenly kicked in, and he stuffed the envelope into his coat, waited for the Russian to disappear, and returned to his compartment. The incident had taken no more than one minute.

Even in the privacy of his own compartment, Downing didn’t dare take out the envelope to examine its contents. He and his family had been assigned the exact same compartment that Downing was always given by the Soviet rail system when he traveled on the Red Arrow, and he assumed that meant it was heavily bugged, probably with both audio and video.

It took all of Downing’s patience and training to sit with his wife and daughter for the next several hours in the cramped compartment with the envelope hidden away. But it wasn’t until the train pulled into Leningrad and Downing was safely inside the CIA’s secure Leningrad office that he finally reviewed what the man had furtively passed him.

As he read, Downing could barely contain his excitement. Inside the envelope, he found a grainy surveillance photograph of himself and his wife as they walked into a Moscow subway station. In the photograph, they were heavily bundled up against the cold, and there was snow piled up in the background. He calculated that the picture had been taken the previous winter, soon after his arrival to take over as Moscow chief. He also found a lengthy note from the young Soviet, stating that he was indeed a KGB officer, that he was increasingly angry and frustrated with the Soviet system, and that he wanted someday to leave for America. Until that day, however, he was ready to spy for the CIA. He had included the photograph of Downing and his wife as proof that he was with the KGB and that he had access to information of unique interest to the CIA chief.

While he didn’t give his name during this first message, the Russian stated that he held an important position within the American Department of the KGB’s Second Chief Directorate, the spy hunters who watched the CIA’s officers in Moscow. He was the executive assistant to the chief of the American Department, and he was also personally in charge of monitoring the CIA’s Moscow station chief. He was thus Jack Downing’s KGB case officer, so he knew everything the KGB knew about Downing: his work, his travel, his family. Most intriguing, he knew when and where the KGB was following Downing around Moscow and what other secret methods the KGB was using to keep track of him.

Since he was Downing’s KGB case officer, he said he would know when it was safe to communicate. He wrote that Downing shouldn’t try to contact him or schedule meetings. Instead, he gave Downing a brief list of restaurants and theaters around Moscow that he should visit by car on Friday nights. He should park, leave his car unlocked, and then go inside and eat dinner or watch a movie. The Russian would then leave a message in Downing’s car—right under the noses of the KGB’s surveillance teams. He could do so because of the peculiarities of the KGB’s surveillance habits. On Fridays, the KGB knew, American diplomats received their overseas mail. The KGB was always looking for opportunities to rifle through the mail of key diplomats and CIA officers, looking for anything that would provide a handle on the individual, some hint of vulnerability. So on Friday nights, the Russian could easily explain to the surveillance men with him that he was entering Downing’s car to check his briefcase and his mail.

If Downing wanted to send him a message in return, the American could leave a specially marked envelope inside his briefcase in the car. Downing’s briefcase, left casually behind in his car, was to be the letter drop, the mailbox for their clandestine communications. The Russian also wrote that he could continue to meet Downing on the Red Arrow; he would always know when Downing was scheduled