White muttered a curt "Copy."

The ELINT (electronic intelligence) vessel, a Soviet-CIS Gagarin-class research ship about the same size as the Valley Mistress, was a serious threat to this mission. Primarily used for spacecraft tracking and recovery, it was crammed full of communications and radar gear.

Based in St. Petersburg, it had been on its way to the Atlantic when it had slowed and begun shadowing the American vessel in the Baltic, using its radar to constantly monitor the skies and seas around the Mistress. White thought that the CIS spy ship would go away after they had made their schedule port call in Tallinn, Estonia, but it had not. Then, after their inspection by Estonian customs officials in Tallinn-many of whom, White was sure, were former KGB agents-he thought the spy ship would definitely leave. Again, it had not, although it was no longer scanning them with radar. The Mistress had moved back into the Baltic, headed toward its next port of call in Norway, and the Gagarin-class research ship was right on his tail.

It was wrong, but probably prudent, to always believe that your cover was blown. The Gagarin-class vessel was not now using its radar, but it had lots of other sophisticated sensors-infrared, laser, low-light TV, super-sensitive optical, and plain old trained

"weather-eye" crewmen- with which to watch over the Mistress. Or it could be just hanging out, tracking its own satellites, conducting training missions, anything. White's mission was too important to scrub, so some chances had to be taken. .

The report from PATRIOT continued: "Possible military rotary-wing aircraft will be within ten miles of target vicinity at feet-dry. Subject

aircraft has been observed orbiting the vicinity since sunset. Analysis indicates the target may have been compromised. Recommend postponement additional twenty-four hours.

Radar downlink to follow. PATRIOT standing by. Out."

Well, things did not look good. A spy ship nearby, and now a military chopper in the target area. "Looks like we've been blown," Knowlton said. "We don't have a choice but to bug out."

"Shit," White muttered. "You're probably right." But Knowlton knew White had no intention of leaving. White turned to Marchetti and said, "Let's start putting a little distance between us and that Gagarin, Joe. Try to get us over his radar horizon."

"It'll look suspicious .

"We already look suspicious," White said. "I'm going down to Intel. Keep an eye on things up here," he ordered Knowlton, then hurried off the bridge.

The confusing status of White's HUMINT (human intelligence) target underscored the dangerous situation that now existed in the region. Even though the Baltic states had been independent for quite a long time, all still had foreign troops on their soil. Worse, those troops had a continuing identity crisis of their own. They had gone from being Soviet Red Army troops to Union of Sovereign Socialist Republic troops to Union Treaty troops to Commonwealth of Independent States troops, all in the space of a few months. Now most of those troops didn't even belong to the Commonwealth. The Soviet troops of Byelorussian heritage in the Baltic states pledged allegiance to Belarus, while the Russian troops pledged loyalty to the Russian Federation, and Lithuanian troops supported Lithuania.