The sum of all fears - Tom Clancy [193]
"I have some very good people in Directorate T of the First Chief Directorate," Golovko said. "After we digest this information, some of them will come to speak with you." Sarova was only a few hours away by train.
"Yes, I've met with some of your technology analysts.
A few of them are very good indeed. I hope you still have good contacts in Germany."
Golovko didn't answer that. He had many contacts still in Germany, but how many of them had been doubled? He'd recently done a reliability assessment of former penetration agents in the Stasi, and concluded that none could be trusted - more properly, that those who could be trusted were no longer in positions of any use, and even those He decided on the spot to make this an all-Russian operation.
"If they have the materials, how soon might they fabricate weapons?"
"Given their level of technical expertise, and the fact that they've had access to American systems under NATO, there is no reason whatever why they could not have home-made weapons already in their inventory. They would not be crude weapons, either. In their position, and given the special nuclear materials, I could easily have produced two-stage weapons within months of unification. More sophisticated three-stage weapons maybe another year."
"Where would you do it?"
"In East Germany, of course. Better security. Exactly where?" The man thought for a minute. "Look for a place with extremely precise machine tools, the sort associated with high-precision optical instruments. The X-ray telescope we just orbited was a direct spin-off of H-Bomb research. Management of X-rays, you see, is very important in a multi-stage weapon. We learned much of American bomb technology from open-source papers on focusing X-rays for astrophysical observations. As I said, it's physics. It cannot be hidden, only discovered; once discovered, it is open for all who have the intelligence and the desire to make use of it."
"That is so wonderfully reassuring," Golovko observed crossly. But who could he be angry with - this man for speaking the truth, or nature for being so easy to discover? "Excuse me, Professor. Thank you very much indeed for taking the time to bring this to our attention."
"My father is a mathematics teacher. He has lived his entire life in Kiev. He remembers the Germans."
Golovko saw the man out the door, then walked back to stare out the window.
Why did we ever let them unify? he asked himself. Do they still want land? Lebensraum? Do they still want to be the dominant European power? Or are you being paranoid, Sergey? He was paid to be paranoid, of course. Golovko sat down and lifted his phone.
"It is a small thing, and if it is necessary nothing more needs to be said," Keitel replied to the question.
"And the men?"
"I have what I need, and they are reliable. All have worked overseas, mainly in Africa. All are experienced. Three colonels, six lieutenant-colonels, two majors - all of them retired like me."
"Reliability is all-important," Bock reminded the man.
"I know that, Gunther. Each of these men would have been a general someday. Each has impeccable Party credentials. Why do you think they were retired, eh? Our New Germany cannot trust them."
"Agents provocateurs?"
"I am the intelligence officer here," Keitel reminded his friend. "I do not tell you your job. Don't you tell me mine. Please, my friend, either you trust me or you do not. That choice is yours."
"I know that, Erwin. Forgive me. This operation is most important."
"And I know that, Gunther."
"How soon can you do it?"
"Five days - I'd prefer that we take longer, but I am prepared to move quickly. The problem, of course, is disposing of the body in a suitable manner."
Bock nodded. That was something he'd never had to worry about.