"Better than I ever hoped," General Gabovich replied, taking the desk from Teresov. "The young fool couldn't wait to talk to me-he practically kissed my hand when I told him I'd watch out for him. One, maybe two days, and he will be committed. It is true-Americans trust doctors without question. You could have sawed off his entire leg, but he will eventually tell me his whole life story simply because I appear to be a doctor."

"Did he tell you anything else, sir?"

"If I started to interrogate him, he would have gotten suspicious of me," Gabovich said. "No, but he will talk when he's ready. He's young, afraid, and facing death otherwise. What choice will he have?"

"So we proceed as planned?"

"Yes," Gabovich replied. "Pump sleeping gas into his room in five minutes-low dose only.

Then wake him up in two hours. He'll think one day has already gone by. You'll interrogate him some more, then I'll come back and see what he has to say. The closer we get to his

'execution' day, the more he'll talk. In five days, no more than six, he'll be ready to move.~~

"Move?" Teresov echoed incredulously. "Sir, you're still planning on taking him to the Fisikous Institute?"

"Of course," Gabovich replied. "Luger is an aeronautical engineer, an honor graduate of the Air Force Academy, a highly trained aircrew member, a trained Strategic Air Command navigator, and his last assignment was the High Technology Aerospace Weapons Center. If we turn Luger without destroying his intellect, he can supply enough information to put Fisikous in the lead in new aircraft technology. It will be the intelligence coup of the century-we can turn Fisikous into a bigger aircraft-design bureau than Sukhoi or Mikoyan-Gurevich."

"But Lithuania is becoming a battle zone," Teresov said. "The pro-independence movement there is gathering too much momentum-and attracting too much attention. Fisikous could be easily jeopardized."

"We will never lose Fisikous," Gabovich said. "The Party will never allow it. I think we will never lose the Baltic states, but even if we do, Fisikous will always belong to the Soviet Union, like the Baltic Sea Fleet headquarters in Riga and the Tupolev-92 bomber base in Tallinn. We built those places-they belong to us forever."

"Are you willing to bet everything on that, sir?" Teresov asked. "The Fisikous design bureau is being moved to Kaliningrad in a few years- perhaps Luger should be transferred there or kept here in Moscow..."

"We are in no danger," Gabovich repeated. "This independence movement will eventually die out."

General Gabovich was being blind, Teresov thought, trusting another organization or unit for his own security. "But, sir .

"Luger can be moved quickly enough if the situation warrants-until then he belongs in Vilnius," Gabovich insisted. "I will see to it. The government insists that Vilnius and the Fisikous Institute are secure-all KGB apparatuses have been moved there-so I can trust it."

"Yes, sir," Teresov said. Gabovich had made up his mind-there seemed no dissuading him.