Red Rabbit - Tom Clancy [266]
"Fuck," Ryan breathed. "Oleg, we need to know about this."
"It start in August. Fifteen August it start," Zaitzev told them, spinning out his tale without interruption for five or six minutes.
"No name for the operation?" Jack asked when he stopped.
"No name, just dispatch number fifteen-eight-eighty-two-six-six-six. That is date of first message from Andropov to rezidentura Rome, and number of message, yes? Yuriy Vladimirovich ask how get close to Pope. Rome say bad idea. Then Colonel Rozhdestvenskiy—he is main assistant to chairman, yes?—he send signal to rezidentura Sofia. Operation go from Sofia. So, operation -six-six-six probably run for KGB by Dirzhavna Sugurnost. I think officer name is Strokov, Boris Andreyevich."
Kingshot had a thought and rose, leaving the room. He came back with Nick Thompson, a former detective superintendent of the Metropolitan Police.
"Nick, does the name Boris Andreyevich Strokov mean anything to you?"
The former cop blinked hard. "Indeed it does, Alan. He's the chappie we think killed Georgiy Markov on Westminster Bridge. We had him under surveillance, but he flew out of the country before we had enough cause to pick him up for questioning."
"Wasn't he under diplomatic cover?" Ryan asked, and was surprised by Thompson's answer.
"Actually not. He came in undocumented and left the same way. I saw him myself at Heathrow. But we didn't put the pieces together quickly enough. Dreadful case it was. The poison they gave Markov was horrific stuff."
"You eyeballed this Strokov guy?"
Thompson nodded. "Oh, yes. He might have noticed me. I wasn't being all that careful under the circumstances. He's the one who killed Markov. I'd stake my life on it."
"How can you be sure?"
"I chased murderers for near on twenty years, Sir John. You get to know them in all that time. And that's what he was, a murderer," Thompson said with total confidence. Ryan could remember his father being like this, even on frustrating cases when he knew what he needed but couldn't quite prove it to a jury.
"The Bulgarians have a sort of contract with the Soviets," Kingshot explained. "Back in 1964 or so, they agreed to handle all the 'necessary' eliminations for the KGB. In return, they get various perks, mostly political."
"Strokov, yes, I've heard that name before. Did you get a photo of the chap, Nick?"
"Fifty or more, Alan," Thompson assured him. "I'll never forget that face. He has the eyes of a corpse—no life in them at all, like a doll's eyes."
"How good is he?" Ryan asked.
"As an assassin? Quite good, Sir John. Very good indeed. His elimination of Markov on the bridge was expertly done—it was the third attempt. The first two would-be assassins bungled the job, and they called Strokov in to get it right. And that he did. Had things gone just a little differently, we would not have realized it was a murder at all."
"We think he's worked elsewhere in the West," Kingshot said. "But very little good information. Just gossip really. Jack, this is a dangerous development. I need to get this information to Basil soonest." And with that, Alan left the room to get to a secure phone. Ryan turned back to Zaitzev.
"And that's why you decided to leave?"
"KGB want kill innocent man, Ryan. I see plot grow. Andropov himself say do this. I handle the messages. How can man stop KGB?" he asked. "I cannot stop KGB, but I will not help KGB kill priest—he is innocent man, yes?"
Ryan's eyes looked down at the floor. "Yes, Oleg Ivan'ch, he is." Dear God in heaven. He checked his watch. He had to get this information out PDQ, but nobody was awake at Langley yet.
* * *
"BLOODY HELL," Sir Basil Charleston said into his secure phone. "Is this reliable information, Alan?"
"Yes, sir, I believe it to be entirely truthful. Our Rabbit seems a decent chap, and a rather clever one. He seems to be motivated exclusively by his conscience." Next, Kingshot told him about the first revelation of the morning, MINISTER.
"We need to get 'five' looking into that." The British Security