The Bear and the Dragon - Tom Clancy [180]
Major Yefremov called a real number when his subject was a hundred meters away. "This is Pavel Georgiyevich. I am staying here to see what he left behind," he told his base station. He crossed his legs and lit a cigarette, watching the figure get back into his car and drive off. When he was well out of sight, Yefremov walked over to the other bench and reached under. Oh, yes. A magnetic holder. Suvorov had been using this one for some time. Hed glued a metal plate to the bottom of the green-painted wood, and to this he could affix a magnetic holder … about a centimeter in thickness, his hand told him. Their subject was a "player" after all. Hed just executed a dead-drop.
On hearing it, Provalov experienced the thrill of seeing a crime committed before his very eyes. Now they had their man committing a crime against the state. Now he was theirs. Now they could arrest him at any time. But they wouldnt, of course. The operations commander next to him ordered Yefremov to retrieve the container for examination. That would be done very speedily, because the container would have to be returned. They only had half of the spy team. The other half would come to pick it up.
It was the computer. It had to be. On turning it on, they found a maze of folders, but one of them, they quickly saw, had encrypted contents. The encryption program was one they hadnt come across before. It was American, and its name was written down. They could do no more now. They lacked the proper disks to copy the covert file. That they could fix, and they could also copy the encryption program. Next, theyd have to plant a bugging device on the keyboard. In that way, they could use Sovorovs own password code to crack the encrypted file. With that decision made, the burglary team left the premises.
The next part was virtually preordained. They followed the Mercedes using the same multi-car drill, but the break came when a dumptruck—still the dominant form of life on the Moscow streets—was closest. The subject parked the German sedan and jumped out, took just enough time to affix a strip of paper tape to a lamppost, and hopped back into his car. He didnt even bother to look around, as though hed only done something routine.
But he hadnt. Hed just posted a flag, a notice to someone unknown that the dead-drop had something in it. That someone would walk or drive past and see the tape and know where to go. So, they had to examine the capsule quickly and replace it, lest they warn the enemy spy that their little operation had been compromised. No, you didnt do that until you had to, because things like this were like an unraveling sweater on a pretty woman. You didnt stop pulling the yarn until the tits were exposed, the FSS commander told Provalov.
CHAPTER 24—Infanticide
"Whats this?" the President asked at his morning intelligence briefing.
"A new SORGE source, this ones called WARBLER. Im afraid its not as good from an intelligence point of view, though it does tell us things about their ministers," Dr. Goodley added with some feigned delicacy.
Whoever WARBLER was, Ryan saw, she—it was definitely a she—kept a very intimate diary. She, too, worked with this Minister Fang Gan, and, it appeared, he was enamored of her, and she, if not exactly enamored of him, certainly kept records of his activities. All of them, Ryan saw. It was enough to make his eyes go a little wide this early in the morning.
"Tell Mary Pat that she can sell this stuff to Hustler if she wants, but I really dont need it at eight in the goddamned morning."
"She included