Spycraft - Melton [55]
George then demonstrated the modified pen, emphasizing the critical importance of discreetly getting the body geometry of hands and elbow positioned and taking the picture without compromising the camera. Recalling his month-long self-training process, George knew just how hard this could be while also consciously maintaining situational awareness. Awareness of the environment while performing a clandestine act was a fundamental lesson TRIGON’s life depended on.
“When I did this,” George recalled telling TRIGON, “the hardest part for me was sitting in an office. Suddenly, either I’d catch myself paying no attention to the camera or no attention to what was going on around me. It’s difficult to maintain that split personality.”
Training progressed fitfully over several weeks, with TRIGON sneaking away for small blocks of time that did not disrupt his normal pattern of activity or catch the notice of the KGB. On one occasion, he left a few minutes early for an appointment at the Cultural Society, taking a route that included a visit to the Hilton. On another day, after giving a talk to the Bogotá Chamber of Commerce about Soviet assistance to Latin America, he stopped at the Hilton before returning to the embassy.
These unscheduled training sessions could last between fifteen minutes and two hours and George never knew when his pupil might arrive. Confined to his hotel room and fighting boredom, he waited for TRIGON to knock on the door and say, “I’ve got fifteen minutes” or “I’ve got an hour.”
Diagrammed instructions for one method of using the OTS T-100 ultraminiature camera to photograph text on a full-sized sheet of paper in a single frame.
TRIGON proved a fast learner, but George understood it was one thing to perform flawlessly in the safety of the training environment with the instructor and quite another to operate spy equipment alone, with no support. However, whatever concerns George had about the agent’s courage were soon put to rest, when during one of the rushed training sessions, TRIGON dropped a bombshell. “There’s a new, highly restricted Soviet policy paper on China that has just come into the embassy and I should be able to have access to it,” he told George one day.
George did not encourage TRIGON to photograph the document, since his training on the camera was not completed and top-level policy papers were not readily accessible, even to diplomats. TRIGON had the security clearance for the information but the document itself was closely guarded. The policy paper was being held in the referentura and its control involved signing out the document from a custodian, then reading it while a guard observed the room through a small viewing port.
The instruction continued, and after three more successful practice sessions, TRIGON departed the room with the loaded pen saying, “I may be able to do this.”
Twice he returned to George, describing the security in the area and showing the strain of the risk he was taking. “After I get to the room, a guy walks behind me. I couldn’t use the camera,” he said. “You know what will happen if I make a mistake.”
George sympathized with the agent’s anxiety. “We would like you to do this,” he replied. “And I can tell that you would like to do it, but it’s not worth your life. Just keep thinking about it. This is good practice for when you are back in Moscow, although it won’t be as difficult there, since you should be able to take documents to your own office.”
A few days later, TRIGON reappeared at the hotel room door smiling. “I think I’ve got it,” he said.
After TRIGON departed, an elated George went to a public phone outside the hotel, called the tech standing by in another part of town, and passed the verbal parole for an emergency meeting. Securing the pen, still loaded with exposed film, in a money belt, George headed