"This is not funny, White," Elliott said. "I've never shut that tape recorder off in over six years of working behind this desk-I'm not even sure how to do it. Let's dispense with the cute comments now. Who do you work for, White?"

"The Intelligence Support Agency," White replied immediately.

Elliott knew they were the troubleshooters of the Director of Central Intelligence, the special team that assisted and augmented the regular field-intelligence forces of the United States.

They were the ones who were called when the spooks got in trouble or when something needed doing outside normal DCI channels. "What program?"

White hesitated. It was a normal reaction to his highly classified position. But to Elliott it was a sign of insincerity, that this really was a trap. "You better not clam up on me now, White!"

"MADCAP MAGICIAN," White replied.

"Never heard of it."

"And I'm sure you've got a few things inside these hangars I've never heard of, General,"

White said. "We're a combined-forces military unit, mostly Air Force and Marine Corps special ops, based on the cargo ship USS Valley Mistress. We use some of the CV-22

PAVE HAMMER aircraft that were developed here. Human intelligence is our specialty."

"You were handling this informant in Lithuania?"

"CIA was handling him, but they lost him when he rabbited. The KGB was closing in on him."

"There is no KGB anymore."

"Wrong, sir. There's plenty of KGB, especially in the Baltic states. They call them the MSB, the Inter-Republican Council for Security, but they're all KGB, Internal Troops. OMON, Black Berets-the names have changed, but the faces have not. They were too powerful to destroy; now they're rogue elephants, guns for hire. They don't work for Moscow anymore-they work for whoever offers them the most money. We've been tracking this KGB cell in Vilnius, particularly around the Fisikous Research Institute, where the KGB provides 'specialized'

security services-bribes, threats, and executions-in order to convince local Lithuanian officials not to close down Fisikous. We run up against them all the time."

"So you were sent in to get the informant?"

"He was a Lithuanian officer in a Byelorussian outfit representing the Commonwealth and based in Vilnius," White explained. "The informant was an intelligence officer in a unit in Vilnius. One of his unit's tasks, along with harassing Lithuanian citizens and helping the Byelorussians get rich while 'guarding' the country, was to guard the Fisikous Institute of Technology."

"The Institute itself? He was in it? That means Luger's in Fisikous?"

"Apparently so," White replied. "He's been working in the aircraft-design bureau for a while, perhaps years, under the name Doctor Ozerov. Ivan Sergeiovich Ozerov."

"I know the names of every scientist and every engineer working in every aircraft-design bureau in the Commonwealth," Elliott said, turning in his seat to look at White, "and I've never heard of Ozerov."