Before they could leave, however, the photos that they had risked so much to retrieve from occupied Lithuania had to be successfully copied, and the originals taken back to the United States. it was not enough to Simply take a picture of a picture-too many successful exfiltration operations were ruined by careless handling of retrieved photos. White was determined not to let this happen to him, and he had designed MISCO number two to safely, quickly, and redundantly process photos without

damaging them or triggering some secret destruct process.

One by one, Litwy's photos were examined with a variety of methods, principal among which were plain sight and feel. Many photos were

treated with chemicals to kill the person handling them, or to self-destruct if handled too much or if exposed to flash photography. But these appeared to be standard 8-by- 10 and 5-by-7 matte-finish photos-judging by their brittle, curled appearance. They were processed hastily in an amateur-photography darkroom with old enlarging paper and old, cold chemicals, then allowed to air-dry. White photographed each one with high-resolution video and still cameras without using any extra light or flash units, followed thereafter by Xerox copies and digitized computer scans. The digitized pictures were transmitted via satellite to U.S. Special Operations Command headquarters in Florida and to the National Security Agency intelligence-data collection center in Virginia. White waited impatiently as the data was transmitted to the satellite, relayed to other satellites ringing the globe, then dumped to the NSA's ground station in Ft. Belvoir, Virginia.

Major Carl Knowlton arrived at the MISCO 2 trailer a few moments later, just as the last of the photos were being successfully uplinked to the satellites. "PATRIOT reports rotary-wing choppers from Liepaja about forty miles out, heading this way," Knowlton reported. "ETA, twenty minutes. They're surface-scanning. No air radars reported."

"We're finished here," White said, packing the original photos in waterproof bags, then turning them over to a technician for packing in a special transfer case. "Ladybug will be halfway to Oslo in twenty minutes. What is the Gagarin doing?"

"It's headed our way as well," Knowlton replied. "ETA to radar horizon crossing, forty-five minutes."

"If the Russkies launch fighters from Vainode, Riga, or Kaliningrad, we'll be in for a rough time," White said soberly. The photos were ready to go; White inspected the self-destruct package himself, locked the photos up, and armed the package. If the lock was tampered with, or if someone attempted to cut the case open, an incendiary charge would burn the photos inside and probably kill anyone standing within a few feet. "We better get permission from the Swedish government for an overflight. Are the weapons pods off the bird?"

"You bet. Checked on that myself. The fire-control boxes were pulled also."

"Good." The U.S. government would have to certify to the Swedish government that any aircraft requesting overflight were unarmed-if the CV-22 crashed in Sweden with weapons aboard, even a few 20-millimeter

cannon shells, it would create a disastrous international incident, akin to the embarrassment of Soviet submarines running aground in Swedish waters, and U.S. aircraft and ships would be barred from Sweden for years. White began to flip through the copies of the photos as he continued: "First sign of anyone trying to board us, we deep-six the gun pods and the Intel MISCO trailers."