Red Rabbit Read online

  “Sorry to lose you, Bob, but there’s nothing much I can do.”

  “And I’m pretty useless to the team now anyway. I know.” Szell let out a long and frustrated breath. He’d been here long enough to set up a pretty good little spy shop, providing fairly good political and military information—none of it overly important, because Hungary was not an overly important country, but you just never knew when something of interest would happen, even in Lesotho—which might well be his next posting, Szell reflected. He’d have to buy some sunblock and a nice bush jacket. . . . At least he’d get to catch the World Series back at home.

  But for now, Station Budapest was out of business. Not that Langley would really miss it, Szell consoled himself.

  The signal about this would go to Foggy Bottom via embassy telex—encrypted, of course. Ambassador Ericsson drafted his reply to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, rejecting out of hand the absurd allegation that James Szell, Second Secretary to the Embassy of the United States of America, had done anything inconsistent with his diplomatic status, and lodging an official protest in the name of the U.S. Department of State. Perhaps in the next week, Washington would send some Hungarian diplomat back—whether he was a sheep or a goat would be decided in Washington. Ericsson thought it would be a sheep. Why let on that the FBI had ID’d a goat, after all? Better to let the goat continue to munch away in whatever garden it had invaded—under close observation. And so the game went on. The Ambassador thought it a stupid game, but every member of his staff played it with greater or lesser enthusiasm.

  THE MESSAGE ABOUT SZELL, it turned out, was sufficiently under the radar so that when it was forwarded to CIA headquarters, it was tucked into routine traffic as not worthy of interfering with the DCI’s weekend—Judge Moore got a morning brief every single day anyway, of course, and this item would wait until 8:00 A.M. Sunday, the watch officers collectively decided, because judges liked an orderly life. And Budapest wasn’t all that important in the Great Scheme of Things, was it?

  SUNDAY MORNING IN Moscow was much the same as Sunday morning everywhere else, albeit with fewer people getting dressed up for church. That was true for Ed and Mary Pat, also. A Catholic priest celebrated mass at the U.S. Embassy on Sunday mornings, but most of the time they didn’t make it—though they were both Catholic enough to feel guilt for their slothful transgressions. They both told themselves that their guilt was mitigated by the fact that they were both doing God’s own work right in the center of the land of the heathen. So the plan for today was to take Eddie for a walk in the park, where he might meet some kids to play with. At least, that was Eddie’s mission brief. Ed rolled out of bed and headed to the bathroom first, followed by his wife and then by little Eddie. No morning paper, and the Sunday TV programming was every bit as bad as it was the rest of the week. So they actually had to talk over breakfast, something many Americans find hard to do. Their son was still young and impressionable enough to find Moscow interesting, though nearly all of his friends were Americans or Brits: inmates, like his entire family, in the compound/ghetto, guarded by MGB or KGB—opinions were divided on that question, but everyone knew it made little real difference.

  The meeting was set for 11:00. Oleg Ivan’ch would be easy to spot—as would she, Mary Pat knew. Like a peacock among crows, her husband liked to say (even though the peacock was actually a male bird). She decided to play it down today. No makeup, just casually brushed-out hair, jeans, and a pullover shirt. She couldn’t change her figure very much—the local aesthetic preferred women of her height to be about ten kilograms heavier. Diet, she supposed. Or maybe when you had food available in what was largely a hungry country, you ate it. Maybe the fat layer you acquired made the winters more comfortable? Whatever, the level of fashion for the average Russian female was like something from a Dead End Kids movie. You could tell the wives of important people easily, because their clothes looked almost middle-class, as opposed to the more normal Appalachia class of dress. But that was grossly unfair to the people of Appalachia, Mary Pat decided.

  “You coming, Ed?” she asked after breakfast.

  “No, honey. I’ll clean up the kitchen and get into this new book I got last week.”

  “The truck driver did it,” she offered. “I’ve read that guy before.”

  “Thanks a bunch,” her husband grumbled.

  And with that, she checked her watch and headed out. The park was just three of the long blocks to the east. She waved to the gate guard—definitely KGB, she thought—and headed to the left, holding little Eddie’s hand. The traffic on the street was minimal by American standards, and it was definitely getting cooler out. She was glad she’d dressed her son in a long-sleeve shirt. A turn to look down at him revealed no obvious tail. There could, of course, be binoculars in the apartments across the street, but somehow she thought not. She’d pretty well established herself as a dumb American blonde, and just about everyone bought it. Even Ed’s press contacts thought her dumber than him—and they thought him to be an ass—which could not have suited her any better. Those chattering blackbirds repeated everything she and Ed said to one another, until the word was as uniformly spread as the icing on one of her cakes. It all got back to KGB as quickly as any rumor could go—damned near the speed of light in that community, because reporters did intellectual incest as a way of life—and the Russians listened to them and put everything in their voluminous dossiers until it became something that “everybody knows.” A good field officer always used others to build his or her cover. Such a cover was random-sounding—just as real life always was—and that made it plausible, even to a professional spook.

  The park was about as bleak as everything else in Moscow. A few trees, some badly trodden grass. Almost as though KGB had had all the parks trimmed to make them bad contact points. That it would also limit places for young Muscovites to rendezvous and trade some kisses probably would not have troubled the consciences at The Centre, which were probably about the Pontius Pilate level on a reflective day.

  And there was the Rabbit, a hundred meters or so away, nicely located, near some play items that would appeal to a three-year-old—or a four-year-old. Walking closer, she saw again that Russians doted on their little ones, and, in this case, maybe a little more—the Rabbit was KGB, and so he had access to better consumer goods than the average Russian, which, like a good parent in any land, he lavished on his little girl. That was a good sign for his character, Mary Pat decided. Maybe she could even like this guy, an unexpected gift for a field officer. So many agents were screwed up as badly as a South Bronx street mugger. He didn’t observe her approach any more than to turn and scan the area in boredom, as men walking their children did. The two Americans headed the right way in what would surely appear to be a random act.

  “Eddie, there’s a little girl you can say hello to. Try out your Russian on her,” his mommy suggested.

  “Okay!” and he raced off in the manner of toddlers. Little Eddie ran right up to her and said “Hello.”

  “Hello.”

  “My name is Eddie.”

  “My name is Svetlana Olegovna. Where do you live?”

  “That way.” Eddie pointed back to the foreigners’ ghetto.

  “That is your son?” the Rabbit asked.

  “Yes, Eddie Junior. Edward Edwardovich to you.”

  “So,” Oleg Ivan’ch said next, without amusement, “is he also CIA?”

  “Not exactly.” Almost theatrically, she extended her hand to him. She had to protect him, just in case cameras were about. “I am Mary Patricia Foley.”

  “I see. Does your husband like his shapka?”

  “Actually, he does. You have good taste in furs.”

  “Many Russians do.” Then he switched gears. It was time to go back to business. “Have you decided that you can help me or not?”

  “Yes, Oleg Ivan’ch, we can. Your daughter is darling. Her name is Svetlana?”

  The communications officer nodded. “Yes, that is my little zaichik
.”

  The irony of that was positively eerie. Their Rabbit called his little girl his bunny. It generated a brilliant smile. “So, Oleg, how do we get you to America?”

  “You ask me this?” he asked with no small degree of incredulity.

  “Well, we need some information. Your hobbies and interests, for example, and your wife’s.”

  “I play chess. More than anything else, I read books on old chess matches. My wife is more classically educated than I. She loves music—classical music, not the trash you make in America.”

  “Any particular composer?”

  He shook his head. “Any of the classical composers, Bach, Mozart, Brahms—I do not know all of the names. It is Irina’s passion. She studied piano as a child, but wasn’t quite good enough to get official state training. That is her greatest regret, and we do not have a piano for her to practice on,” he added, knowing that he had to give her this kind of information to assist in her efforts to save him and his family. “What else do you require?”

  “Do any of you have any health problems—medications, for example?” They were speaking in Russian again, and Oleg noted her elegant language skills.

  “No, we are all quite healthy. My Svetlana has been through all the usual childhood diseases, but without complications of any sort.”

  “Good.” That simplifies a lot of things, Mary Pat thought. “She’s a lovely little girl. You must be very proud of her.”

  “But will she like life in the West?” he worried aloud.

  “Oleg Ivan’ch, no child has ever had reason to dislike life in America.”

  “And how does your little Edward like things in the Soviet Union?”

  “He misses his friends, of course, but right before we came over, we took him to Disney World. He still talks a lot about that.”

  Then came a surprise: “Disney World? What is that?”

  “It is a large commercial business made for the pleasure of children—and for adults who remember their childhood. It’s in Florida,” she added.

  “I’ve never heard of it.”

  “You will find it remarkable and most enjoyable. More so for your daughter.” She paused. “What does your wife think of your plans?”

  “Irina knows nothing of this,” Zaitzev said, surprising the hell out of his American interlocutor.

  “What did you say?” Are you out of your fucking mind? MP wondered at once.

  “Irina is a good wife to me. She will do what I tell her to do.” Russian male chauvinism was of the aggressive variety.

  “Oleg Ivan’ch, that is most dangerous for you. You must know that.”

  “The danger to me is being caught by KGB. If that happens, I am a dead man, and so is someone else,” he added, thinking a further dangle was in his interest.

  “Why are you leaving? What convinced you that it is necessary?” she had to ask.

  “KGB is planning to kill a man who does not deserve to die.”

  “Who?” And she had to ask that one, too.

  “That I will tell you when I am in the West.”

  “That is a fair response,” she had to say in reply. Playing a little cagey, aren’t we?

  “One other thing,” he added.

  “Yes?”

  “Be very careful what items you transmit to your headquarters. There is reason to believe your communications are compromised. You should use one-time pads, as we do at The Centre. Do you understand what I am telling you?”

  “All communications about you were first encrypted and then dispatched by Diplomatic Bag to Washington.” When she said that, the relief on his face was real, much as he tried to hide it. And the Rabbit had just told her something of very great importance. “Are we penetrated?”

  “That, also, is something I will discuss only in the West.”

  Oh, shit, Mary Pat thought. They have a mole somewhere, and he might be in the White House Rose Garden for all we know. Oh, shit . . .

  “Very well, we will take the utmost security with your case,” she promised. But that meant that there’d be a two-day minimum turnaround time for important signals. It was back to World War One procedures with this guy. Ritter would just love that. “Can you tell me what methods might be safe?”

  “The British changed their cipher machines about four months ago. We have as yet had no success in cracking them. That I know. Exactly which of your signals are compromised, I do not know, but I do know that some are fully penetrated. Please keep this in mind.”

  “That I will do, Oleg Ivan’ch.” This guy had information that CIA needed—big-time. Cracked communications were the most dangerous things that could happen to any covert agency. Wars had been won and lost over such things as that. The Russians lacked American computer technology, but they did have some of the world’s finest mathematicians, and the brain between a person’s ears was the most dangerous instrument of all, and a damned site more competent that the ones that sat on a desk or a floor. Did Mike Russell have any of the old one-time pads at the embassy? CIA had used them once upon a time, but their cumbersome nature had caused them to be discarded. NSA told everybody who’d listen that on his best day, Seymour Cray couldn’t brute-force their ciphers, even with his brand-new CRAY-2 supercomputer on amphetamines. If they were wrong, it could hurt America in ways too vast to comprehend. But there were many cipher systems, and those who cracked one could not necessarily crack another. Or so everybody said . . . but communications security was not her area of expertise. Even she had to trust someone and something once in a while. But this was like being shot in the back by the starting gun in a hundred-meter race and having to run for the tape anyway. Damn.

  “It is an inconvenience, but we will do what is necessary to protect you. You want to be taken out soon.”

  “This week would be very helpful—not so much for my needs as for the needs of a man whose life is in danger.”

  “I see,” she said, not quite seeing. This guy might be laying a line on her, but if so, he was doing it like a real pro, and she wasn’t getting that signal from this guy. No, he didn’t read like an experienced field spook. He was a player, but not her kind of player.

  “Very well. When you get to work tomorrow, make a contact report,” she told him.

  That one surprised him: “Are you serious?”

  “Of course. Tell your supervisor that you met an American, the wife of a minor embassy official. Describe me and my son—”

  “And tell them you are a pretty but shallow American female who has a handsome and polite little boy,” he surmised. “And your Russian needs a little work, shall we say?”

  “You learn quickly, Oleg Ivan’ch. I bet you play a good game of chess.”

  “Not good enough. I will never be a Grand Master.”

  “We all have our limitations, but in America you will find them far more distant than they are in the Soviet Union.”

  “By the end of the week?”

  “When my husband wears his bright red tie, you set the time and place for a meeting. Possibly by tomorrow afternoon you will get your signal, and we will make the arrangements.”

  “Good day to you, then. Where did you learn your Russian?”

  “My grandfather was equerry to Aleksey Nikolayevich Romanov,” she explained. “In my childhood, he told me many stories about the young man and his untimely death.”

  “So, your hatred for the Soviet Union runs deep, eh?”

  “Only for your government, Oleg. Not for the people of this country. I would see you free.”

  “Someday, perhaps, but not soon.”

  “History, Oleg Ivan’ch, is made not of a few big things but of many small things.” That was one of her core beliefs. Again, for the cameras that might be there or not, she shook his hand and called her son. They walked around the park for another hour before heading back home for lunch.

  But for lunch instead they all drove to the embassy, talking on the way about nothing more sensitive than the admirably clear weather. Once there, they all had h
ot dogs in the embassy canteen, and then Eddie went to the day-care room. Ed and Mary Pat went to his office.

  “He said what?” the Chief of Station snapped.

  “He said his wife—named Irina, by the way—doesn’t know his plans,” Mary Pat repeated.

  “Son of a bitch!” her husband observed at once.

  “Well, it does simplify some of our exposure. At least she can’t let anything slip.” His wife was always the optimist, Ed saw.

  “Yeah, baby, until we try to make the exfiltration, and she decides not to go anywhere.”

  “He says she’ll do what he says. You know, the men here like to rule the roost.”

  “That wouldn’t work with you,” the Chief of Station pointed out. For several reasons, not the least of which was that her balls were every bit as big as his.

  “I’m not Russian, Eddie.”

  “Okay, what else did he say?”

  “He doesn’t trust our comms. He thinks some of our systems are compromised.”

  “Jesus!” He paused. “Any other good news?”

  “The reason he’s skipping town is that KGB wants to kill somebody who, he says, doesn’t deserve to be killed.”

  “Did he say who?”

  “Not until he breathes free air. But there is good news. His wife is a classical music buff. We need to find a good conductor in Hungary.”

  “Hungary?”

  “I was thinking last night. Best place to get him out from. That’s Jimmy Szell’s station, isn’t it?”