Spycraft - Melton [75]
Then, in March of 1982 Tolkachev contacted the CIA for an unscheduled meeting and passed his handler a piece of the external cover of an original propusk, enabling OTS to match precisely the colors.
With the increased security and no longer able to copy documents at home during his lunch hour, Tolkachev’s production decreased significantly. However, even the reduced level of production was significant given the constraints on copying. Once his case officer commented that photographing the documents at work was “dangerous.” Tolkachev laughed and replied, “Everything is dangerous!”
Tolkachev preferred the face-to-face method of passing material to his case officers and receiving new gear. Ten such clandestine encounters occurred between October of 1980 and November of 1983. Each meeting first depended on the CIA officer’s confidence that he had been able to evade KGB surveillance; if there was any doubt, the meeting was aborted.
Pervasive surveillance of suspected officers required creative as well as technical solutions by OTS to defeat the Soviets. The SRR-100 receiver that monitored surveillance teams’ transmission had been upgraded since its discovery by the KGB when Martha Peterson was arrested. Although it remained a valuable tool, the Soviets had also changed procedures, making reliance on just the SRR-100 alone unwise. Case officers meeting Tolkachev needed other means to free themselves from surveillance.
One possible solution arose from the increased use of private automobiles in Moscow. In studying KGB surveillance tactics, case officers concluded there were moments when a passenger could exit the car unobserved by surveillance. If the passenger’s profile could be replaced, the surveillance team would continue to believe they had their target in sight while the officer was free to “operate black.”
Getting out of the car was a tradecraft problem left to case officers, but creating a device to replicate their profile became an OTS technical challenge. What followed evolved into one of OTS’s stranger attempts to adapt consumer technology for clandestine use.
Two young OTS engineers were dispatched to a windowless store in Washington, D.C.’s seedy red light district on 14th Street. Inside they examined the stock of adult entertainment and sex enhancement products until they found what they needed: three inflatable human figures intended for use as sex dolls. Although the figurines were excessively detailed in anatomical respects, they also possessed all the necessary features to become an inflatable piece of tradecraft.
Technical requirements stipulated that the dolls needed to inflate quickly and sit up straight. The dummy occupant of the car had to appear in the passenger seat within a split second after the passenger exited since a car could be obscured from KGB surveillance for only brief moments, such as rounding a corner. This required, the techs reasoned, a burst of compressed air to inflate the mannequin, which would pop out of some type of container. Initial testing demonstrated that the figurines’ construction could not withstand the pressure of a rapid inflation in less than a second. Seams blew out and slow air leakage was common, affecting the dolls’ posture.
Discreet acquisition of additional “test dolls” became problematic, if not embarrassing. When the young techs returned to a store for more dolls, the proprietor’s quizzical stare seemed to raise uncomfortable questions about their private lives. After all, they could not explain, “You see, we work