" 'Gorbachev gave him the ultimate punishment short of a court-martial,' " Rodgers read, " 'a demotion, after which he went to Afghanistan and personally commanded repeats of those same missions. This time, however, they turned out differently. He threw men and arms at the rebel hideout until it was taken.' "

"He definitely sounds like someone to watch," Hood said as he inched the text ahead.

The next name on the screen was the most recent addition.

"Interior Minister Nikolai Dogin," Hood said, then read, " 'This man never met a capitalist he didn't despise. If you look at picture Z/D-1 you'll see that the CIA photographed him secretly visiting Beijing when Gorbachev came to power. Dogin was Mayor of Moscow at the time, and he was secretly trying to rally the support of international Communists against the new President.' "

"There's something about you former Mayors that worries me," Rodgers said as Hood accessed up the photograph.

His deadpan remark drew a smile from Hood.

The men leaned close to the monitor and read the "Eyes Only" notation on the photograph. It indicated that the picture had been turned over to Gorbachev by the U.S. Ambassador.

Rodgers sat back. "Dogin must have had a hell of a lot of support to stay in power after Gorby found out about that."

"Absolutely," said Hood. "The kind of support you nurture over the years and build into a network. The kind of support that lets you slip a government right out from under a duly elected president."

The intercom outside the door beeped. "Chief, it's Bob Herbert."

Hood pressed a button on the side of his desk and the lock clicked open. The door swung in and an agitated Bob Herbert wheeled over. He dropped a diskette on the desk. Whenever Herbert was upset or puzzled, his Mississippi accent thickened. It was very thick now.

"Somethin' happened at eight P.M., local time," Herbert said. "Somethin' big."

Hood glanced down at Herbert's diskette. "What happened?"

"All of a sudden, Russians are every-goddamn-where." He pointed at the disk. "Run it. G'wan."

Hood downloaded the data and saw that Herbert wasn't exaggerating. Pilots and planes from Orenburg were being transferred to the Ukrainian border. The Baltic Fleet was on a low-level alert, ostensibly as a drill. And the battery of four Hawk satellites usually used to monitor the West had been diverted to potential Russian targets in Poland.

"Moscow's paying special attention to Kiev and Warsaw," Rodgers said as he studied the satellite coordinates.

Herbert said, "What's interestin' about the Hawks is that the downlink station in Baikonur went silent at eight P.M., local time."

"Just the station?" Rodgers asked. "Not the satellite dishes?"

"Not the dishes," Herbert said.

"Then where's the data going?" Hood asked.