Red Rabbit - Tom Clancy [72]
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"VERY WELL, Aleksey Nikolay'ch, you know the man," Andropov said. "What do I tell him now?"
It was a sign of the Chairman's intelligence that he didn't lash out with a scorching reply, to put the Rome rezident back in his place. Only a fool stomped on his senior subordinates.
"He asks for guidance—the scope of the operation and so forth. We should give it to him. This brings into question exactly what you are contemplating, Comrade Chairman. Have you thought it through to that point?"
"Very well, Colonel, what do you think we should do?"
"Comrade Chairman, there is an expression the Americans use which I have learned to respect: That is above my pay grade."
"Are you telling me that you do not play Chairman yourself—in your own mind?" Yuriy Vladimirovich asked, rather pointedly.
"Honestly, no, I limit my thinking to that which I understand—operational questions. I am not competent to trespass into high political confines, comrade."
A clever answer, if not a truthful one, Andropov noted. But Rozhdestvenskiy would be unable to discuss whatever high-level thoughts he might have, because no one else at KGB was cleared to discuss such things. Now, he might be interviewed by some very senior member of the Party's Central Committee, on orders from the Politburo, but such an order would almost have to come from Brezhnev himself. And that, Yuriy Vladimirovich thought, was not likely at this time. So, yes, the colonel would think about it in the privacy of his own mind, as all subordinates did, but as a professional KGB officer, rather than a Party flack, he would leave such thoughts right there.
"Very well, we will dispense with the political considerations entirely. Consider this a theoretical question: How would one kill this priest?"
Rozhdestvenskiy looked uneasy.
"Sit," the Chairman told his subordinate. "You have planned complex operations before. Take your time to walk through this one."
Rozhdestvenskiy took his seat before speaking. "First of all, I would ask for assistance from someone better-versed in such things. We have several such officers here in The Centre. But… since you ask me to think about it in theoretical terms…" The colonel's voice trailed off and his eyes went up and to the left. When he started speaking again, his words came slowly.
"First of all, we would use Goderenko's station only for information—reconnaissance of the target, that sort of thing. We would not want to use Station Rome's people in any active way… In fact, I would advise against using Soviet personnel at all for the active parts of the operation."
"Why?" Andropov asked.
"The Italian police are professionally trained, and for an investigation of this magnitude, they would throw people into it, assign their very best men. At any event like this, there will be witnesses. Everyone on earth has two eyes and a memory. Some have intelligence. That sort of thing cannot be predicted. While on the one hand, this militates in favor of, let us say, a sniper and a long-range shot, such a methodology would point to a state-level operation. Such a sniper would have to be well-trained and properly equipped. That would mean a soldier. A soldier means an army. An army means a nation-state—and which nation-state would wish to kill the Pope?" Colonel Rozhdestvenskiy asked. "A truly black operation cannot be traced back to its point of origin."
Andropov lit a cigarette and nodded. He'd chosen well. This colonel was no man's fool. "Go on."
"Ideally, the shooter would have no ties whatsoever to the Soviet Union. We must be sure of that because we cannot ignore the possibility that he will be arrested. If he is arrested, he will be questioned. Most men talk under questioning, either for psychological or physical reasons."