Tom Clancy's op-center_ acts of war - Tom Clancy [23]
According to, the file, forty-one-year-old Colonel Seden was a rising star in the Turkish Security Forces. He had joined the paramilitary gendarmerie Jandarma when he was seventeen, two years older than many new recruits. After overhearing three Kurds in a cafe plotting to poison a large shipment of tobacco headed for Europe, Seden had followed them to their apartment and single-handedly arrested them. He'd been offered a post in the TSF two weeks later. There was an eyes-only note in the dossier from Seden's commanding officer at the TSF. General Suleyman feared that the "takedown" of the Kurds had been too fortuitous. There was Kurdish blood on Seden's mother's side, and the general worried that the Kurds had willingly sacrificed themselves so that Seden could infiltrate the security force. However, nothing in the colonel's subsequent record indicated anything but complete devotion to the TSF and to the government.
"Of course his record would be impeccable," Rodgers muttered when he reached that section of the file. "You don't slip a mole in and immediately set him spying. You wait."
"For what?" Mary Rose asked.
"For one of two things," he replied. "For a crisis, when you absolutely need data. Otherwise you wait for the person to work his or her way up to the highest levels of security clearance. At those levels, a mole can bring in other moles. The Germans did a lot of that during World War II. They would attempt to locate just one sympathizer in some area of the British aristocracy. That person would then recommend chauffeurs or domestics to lords or officers or members of the government. Those workers were all German plants, of course, who would then spy on their employers and pass information on to milkmen, postal workers, and others who had been bought by the Germans."
"Gee, they never taught me that in my computer and fiber-optics classes," Mary Rose remarked.
"It isn't even taught in most of the history classes," the general lamented. "Too many professors are afraid of insulting the German-Americans or the British-Americans or any other hyphenate group which might be wounded, every inch of it, if you insult a fraction."
Mary Rose nodded. "So does this mean Seden is absolutely tied to the Kurdish underground?"
"Not at all," said Rodgers. "According to the Turks, only about a third of the people who have some Kurdish blood sympathize with their cause. The rest are loyal to their host country. It does mean we show him as little as possible."
They continued to scan the dossier as they spoke. Seden was unmarried. He had a widowed mother who lived in an apartment in Ankara and an unmarried sister who lived with her. His father was a riveter who had died in a construction accident when the boy was nine. The colonel had attended secular school in Istanbul, where he'd studied hard and at the same time excelled at weight lifting. He'd been part of the Turkish weight-lifting team in the summer Olympics in 1992. He'd then quit school in order to join the Jandarma.
"No dependents," Rodgers said. "Well, these days that doesn't mean much. Marriages of convenience between spies is the new thing. Investigators always look for lone wolves."
Mary Rose closed the file. "So where does that leave us with Colonel Seden?"
"Informed," Rodgers smiled.
"That's all?" Mary Rose asked.
"That's all. You never know when information will come in handy." Rodgers's smile broadened. "Why don't you take a break now. We'll continue after Colonel Seden has--"
Rodgers stopped as one of his computer alarms began pinging softly but insistently. It sounded twice for a second, was silent for a second, sounded once, and then was silent for another second. After that it repeated the pattern.
"That's the ABA warning," Mary Rose said. She bent her head sharpy as she stood and leaned behind Rodgers.