“Some of the same off-the-books associates I’ve used before in the course of our dealings,” said Berg.

“I still don’t see what I can do to help,” said Kaparov.

“Without going into too much detail, the decades-long process of discovering this network started with a GRU general who threw himself under a tram in Saint Petersburg in 2003, immediately after passing some very specific information about the network to one of our officers,” said Berg. “The general was one of a handful of Soviet-era hard-liners still active in the GRU at the time, which is why we were surprised he wanted to defect to the United States. We were in the process of verifying what he had to offer when everything went sideways. He couldn’t have been the only GRU general with knowledge of this program. If we can identify another, perhaps we could take the next step toward unearthing the rest of the network.”

“Two thousand three was a very unlucky year for GRU generals and high-ranking officers,” said Berg. “A few dozen committed suicide, died in car accidents, or drowned in puddles near their dachas. Everyone in the GRU feared some kind of purge, but nobody could figure out if they were next. The only discernible pattern was that there was no pattern. Nobody could figure out where they worked within the GRU. People started calling it the Lost Directorate; then word came down from the top to stop talking about it—and that was it. Reinforced by firings and a few more suspicious deaths.”

“The Lost Directorate. Sounds like they were running something off the books,” said Berg.

“Nothing was off the books in the Soviet Union. We documented and accounted for everything, and we still do. It’s in our DNA,” said Kaparov.

“Then what I’m asking you to do is lean on some of your Soviet-era comrades in arms to see if any of the possible members of this Lost Directorate survived the purge,” said Berg.

“Then you’ll send people here to have a friendly chat with them?”

“Something like that.”

“Let me see what I can dig up without getting myself killed,” said Kaparov. “This reminds me of something. Have you ever heard the term Khrushchev’s Ghost?”

“I’ve obviously heard of Khrushchev, but I’m unfamiliar with his ghost.”

“It’s a term that floated around in the late sixties, in the aftermath of Khrushchev’s reign. Rumors about a group of hard-liners unhappy with the direction Brezhnev was taking the country. Just whispers here and there about Khrushchev’s Ghost watching over the country. Nothing ever came of it. I only brought it up because it somehow rings the same.”

“It does, and it sounds creepy as hell, if you ask me,” said Berg.