The Assassination Option (Clandestine Operations 2)

“According to Loskutnikov, Seven-K says the exfiltration problem is exacerbated by the mental condition of the woman and the children—”

“Meaning what?” Cronley interrupted. “They’re afraid? Or crazy?”

Bischoff ignored him again.

“—which is such that travel by train or bus is dangerous.”

“I asked you two questions, Bischoff, and you answered neither.”

“Sorry,” he said, visibly insincere. “What were they?”

“Since Bischoff is having such difficulty telling you, Jim, what he told me,” General Gehlen said, “let me tell you what he told me.”

“Please,” Cronley said.

“A lot of this, you will understand, is what I am inferring from what Bischoff told me and what I know of this, and other, situations.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Understandably, Mrs. Likharev is upset—perhaps terrified—by the situation in which she now finds herself. She has been taken from the security of her Nevsky Prospekt apartment in Leningrad and now is on the run. I agree with Bischoff that she and the children are probably in Poland. She knows what will happen if the NKGB finds them. Children sense when their mother is terrified, and it terrifies them.

“Seven-K knows that if they travel by train or bus, the odds are that a terrified woman will attract the attention of railroad or bus station police, who will start asking questions. Even with good spurious documents, which I’m sure Seven-K has provided, travel by bus or train is dangerous.

“So that means travel by car, or perhaps truck. By car, providing that they have credible identification documents, would be safer than travel by truck. What is an obviously upper-class Russian woman doing riding around in a truck in Poland with two children?”

“I get it.”

“To use your charming phr

ase, Jim, ‘cutting to the chase,’ what Seven-K proposes is that the Likharevs be transported to Thuringia . . .”

“My massive ignorance has just raised its head.”

“The German state, the East German state, which borders on Hesse in the Kassel-Hersfeld area. Do you know that area?”

“I’ve been to both Hersfeld and Kassel. When I first came to Germany, I was assigned to the Twenty-second CIC Detachment in Marburg. But do I know the area? No.”

Gehlen nodded.

“And then be turned over to us and then taken across the border.”

“Turned over to us?”

“Preferably to Americans, but if that is not possible, to us. Seven-K says Mrs. Likharev cannot be trusted to have control of her emotions to the point that she could cross the border with her children alone.”

“Turned over to whomever in East Germany?”

Gehlen nodded.

“I can see it now,” Cronley said, “Fat Freddy, Tiny, and me sneaking across the border.”

“Not to mention what the lady and her kids would do when they saw the Big Black Guy,” Tiny said. “If Tedworth and I terrified Likharev, what would she do when she saw me?”

“We could use the Storchs to get them,” Cronley said thoughtfully. “If we had someplace to land . . .”

“Could you do that?” Gehlen asked.

“I don’t know, but I know where to get an expert opinion.”