the use of nuclear weapons. Fortunately, nothing had come of it, but Kalugin certainly had tried. Yuri Esenin and the bombs on board a Kilo-class sub — that was an effort doomed from the beginning. Only the skill and courage of Pavel Saratov had allowed the sub to get as far as it did. The air raids on Japan were another matter. When they were launched, the spymaster thought his worst nightmare had come true. Then the planes just disappeared. Ilin, of course, set out to discover what had happened. After reading the reports of the interrogations of the survivors of the Tokyo/tateyama Peninsula raids, Ilin thought it likely that Yan Chernov had shot down the Russian tankers, dooming all the planes to crash landings. It was his voice, two survivors believed, that warned of airborne Zeros, yet not a single enemy fighter had been seen. One of Ilin’s agents in an American seismic exploration unit working in Siberia said that a man answering Chernov’s description had shown up two days after the raid attempt with only a flight suit on his back, nothing else. The Americans fed him and gave him a job. He was still there, the informant said. Either Chernov or the Japanese had shot down the Russian tankers, dooming the strike planes. Whichever, Ilin thought the nuclear strike on Japan was a matter best forgotten. Poor Russia, a land without hope. Now it had some. With Kalugin gone, with the government rejuvenated and foreign nations willing to make investments, hope was peeping through the rubble. Perhaps hope would continue to grow. With all this hope and billions in foreign capital, Russia might even grow into a country worthy of its patriots, men like Yan Chernov and Pavel Saratov. Time would tell.
