to be more accurate.
Katerina had quite literally screwed her way to where she was. Men, women, straight, lesbian, it didn’t matter, whatever she required to do for her mother country she would do. Her mother had taught her the intricacies of pleasing her lovers, whether they be male or female, taping her exploits and analyzing them with her, pointing out areas to improve on her next conquest. Of which there were many.
Her beauty and overt sexuality ensured that whatever she wanted she got, whether it be information, jobs, promotions. Whatever Katerina wanted, Katerina could have. Her education matched her sexual ability, top of the class. She could have been a model on the front cover of every magazine in the land, a corporate executive earning millions, the world was her oyster. In fact, such was the training her mother had given her, she could even be the first lady.
Katerina re-read the message again on the cellphone that had been fedexed to her over a month ago. The instructions for delivery had been clear, only the addressee could sign for the package. Katerina had produced her American ID and ignoring the English language instruction manual that looked like any other new phone’s instructions, decoded the German. The message had arrived that morning; a rather innocuous text message inviting her to apply for a bank loan. On entering a special code, the true message came to life. Surkov had commenced the final stages of his plan. A generation in the making and Katerina had a major part to play.
Chapter 39
Major Andre Pushkin hit the dial button on an exact replica to the cellphone that Katerina had and was instantly connected to General Borodin. The state of the art handset piggybacked onto the Russian Glonass Satellite Navigation system and as such bypassed all American technology in favor of Russia’s own.
“Major, you received my message?” asked the General, no need for preamble.
“Yes Sir, General.”
“You understand the importance of your mission?”
“Of course, General!’
“Where are you now?”
“We are securing the property’s boundary and ascertaining the location of the target.”
“Is he not there?”
“It appears not, we have two heat sources on our infra red, one too small and the other has recently arrived and was not the target. We are assuming the wife and another unidentified male.”
“The child?”
“No heat source suggests a child is on site, General… wait a second, General…”
Major Pushkin listened to his number two report the news picked up by their radio operator.
“I’m sorry General we have reports coming through of a CIA assassin in the area having just competed a mission nearby. Our target perhaps.”
General Borodin almost choked on his vodka as the Major relayed the information.
“Sorry,” he spluttered. “You are picking up a radio broadcast of a CIA operation?”
“Sorry, we are not picking up a CIA broadcast, General. It is a local news channel reporting the information,” clarified Pushkin.
“Vasiliy get in here!” shouted Borodin for the world to hear.
“Pushkin, I’ll call you back!” informed the General before killing the connection.
Vasiliy rushed to his General’s command and stood ready for whatever he needed.
“I’ve just heard that the local news station is reporting a CIA assassin’s involvement in Laredo. I actually thought for a moment we were able to listen to encrypted CIA broadcasts but that’s another matter,” he digressed before coming back on subject. “ Find out what is happening!” he ordered.
“Of course, General.”
Captain John Kenny had been monitoring and analyzing the Glonass system pretty much since its reinstatement by President Putin as a top priority for modern Russia. The original system had caused great concern at the time of its inception in the late 70s and had been a fairly major priority for NSA at that time. Rooms of data on the structure and capability of Russia’s own network of Global Positioning Satellites had been filled many times over. However, with the fall of the wall and the downturn in the Russian economy in the 90s, it fell into disrepair. Putin’s reinvestment lifted some eyebrows within the NSA but nothing like the interest generated in the cold war era.
Captain Kenny was fascinated by the system and had pretty much followed it as a hobby during his normal duties at Lackland Air Force Base within the NSA’s Texas Cryptology Center. He was convinced the structure and original plans were to create something far more powerful than a simple navigation system. However until that night, he had not an ounce of evidence to support such a suggestion. In the previous two hours, all of that had changed. Two anomalies had occurred that had triggered a small program John had written to alert him to any such nuances. Two signals had been sent to the system that was far more advanced than anything that had ever been sent before and the signals had emanated not from Russia but from Texas itself. It seemed all his efforts to convince the hierarchy of an advanced communication tool, far beyond anything the US had even considered possible of the Russians, was a reality.
He grabbed his phone and immediately called the duty officer at Fort Meade, he needed to speak to Vice Admiral Kenyon, Head of the NSA immediately.
General Borodin picked up the new fangled phone and hit the dial button. He was connected to Pushkin almost immediately.
“You are right, it seems a CIA operative has been active in the area. Although our intelligence believed the target was no longer with the Agency. The coincidence would presume he is your target.”
“Do you have his new location?” asked Pushkin, keen to fulfill his orders.
“From the reports, he is in a police facility at the border.”
“What should we do?” asked Pushkin.
Borodin paused as he considered the options. Pushkin’s team was more than capable of taking out a police station; it was whether the situation required it.
“You said the woman was still there?”
“Yes, General.”
“He’ll come back, be ready when he does!” he ordered before killing the line.
As Captain John Kenny was being put through to a very sleepy and grumpy Vice Admiral Kenyon, his program reported a further nuance. Three in the space of two hours and two of those in five minutes.
“What in the name of God is it Kenny?”
“I was right Admiral, the Glonass is an advanced communication system!”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“The Russian equivalent of our GPS system, they are using it for communications.”
“And this couldn’t wait until the morning?!” he answered with some anger.
“Well that’s just it, Sir. They’re communicating from here!”
“The US?”
“Yes, the US, in fact right here in Texas!” explained Kenny excitedly.
“So you have hunch about a system developed in the eighties by the Soviets that it has some amazing uses nobody else agrees with and it just so happens the first proof you get is on your doorstep? Of all the places in the world the first location is where you are?!” The final sentence had Captain Kenny moving the handset away from his ear.
Before Captain Kenny could respond, the admiral hung up. The call was over and the duty officer came back on line.
“Hmm, I think you should start packing your bags, John. I would imagine your next post will be even more
