Red Rabbit - Tom Clancy [98]
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"GOOD MORNING, Colonel Bubovoy," Andropov said pleasantly, without rising.
"Good day to you, Comrade Chairman," the Sofia rezident replied, swallowing his relief that Rozhdestvenskiy hadn't lied to him. You could never be too careful, after all, or too paranoid.
"How go things in Sofia?" Andropov waved him to the leather seat opposite the big oak desk.
"Well, Comrade Chairman, our fraternal socialist colleagues remain cooperative, especially with Turkish matters."
"Good. We have a proposed mission to undertake and I require your opinion of its feasibility." The voice stayed entirely pleasant.
"And what might that be?" Bubovoy asked.
Andropov outlined the plans, watching his visitor's face closely for his reaction. There was none. The colonel was too experienced for that, and besides, he knew the look he was getting.
"How soon?" he asked.
"How quickly could you set things up?"
"I will need to get cooperation from our Bulgarian friends. I know who to go to—Colonel Boris Strokov, a very skillful player in the DS. He runs their operations in Turkey—smuggling and such—which gives him entree into Turkish gangster organizations. The contacts are very useful, especially when a killing is necessary."
"Go on," the Chairman urged quietly.
"Comrade Chairman, such an operation will not be simple. Without a means of getting a gunman into the private residence of the target, it will mean making the attempt at a public appearance, at which there will necessarily be many people. We can tell our gunman that we have the means of getting him away, but that will be a lie, of course. From a tactical point of view, it would be better to have a second man present, to kill him immediately after he takes his shot—with a suppressed weapon. For the second killer, escape is far easier, since the attention of the crowd will be on the first gunman. It also alleviates the possible problem of our gunman talking to the police. The Italian police do not have a good public reputation, but this is not, strictly speaking, true. As our rezident in Rome can tell you, their investigative arms are quite well organized and highly professional. Thus, it is in our interest to have our gunman eliminated at once."
"But won't that suggest the involvement of an intelligence service?" Andropov asked. "Is it too elegant?"
Bubovoy leaned back and spoke judiciously. This was what Andropov wanted to hear, and he was ready to deliver it. "Comrade Chairman, one must weigh one hazard against another. The greatest danger is if our assassin talked about how he came to be in Rome. A dead man tells no tales, as they say. And a silenced voice cannot give out information. The other side can speculate, but it is merely speculation. For our part, we can easily release information through the press sources we control about Muslim animosity toward the head of the Roman church. The Western news services will pick it up and, with proper guidance, we can help shape the public understanding of what has taken place. The United States and Canada Institute has some excellent academicians for this purpose, as you know. We can use them to formulate the black propaganda, and then use people from the First Chief Directorate to propagate it. This proposed operation is not without risk, of course, but, though complex, it is not all that difficult from a conceptual point of view. The real problems will be in its execution and in operational security. That's why it's critical to eliminate the assassin immediately. The most important thing is the denial of information to the other side. Let them speculate all they wish, but without hard information, they will know nothing. This operation will be very closely held, I presume."
"Less than five people at present. How many more?" Andropov asked, impressed at Bubovoy's expertise and sangfroid.
"At least three Bulgarians. Then they will select the Turk—it must be a Turk, you see."
"Why?" Though Andropov figured he knew the answer.
"Turkey is a Muslim country, and there is a long-standing antipathy between the Christian churches