"I want to play on this a little. The DI's Russian people will chew on it for a couple of days. I want you and me to do our own analysis, but I want a different spin on it."

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning that you think it's plausible, and I have my doubts. Therefore, you will look for reasons it might not be true, and I'll look for reasons that it is." Jack paused. "The Intelligence Directorate will play this conventionally. They're too organized down there. I don't want that."

"But you want me to -"

"I want you to exercise that brain. I think you're smart, Ben. I want you to prove it. That's an order, by the way."

Goodley considered that. He wasn't accustomed to getting or taking orders. "I don't know that I can do that."

"Why not?"

"It's contrary to my views. It's not the way I see this, it's "

"Your beef with me and a lot of people here is the corporate mind of CIA, right? Part of that is correct, we do have a corporate mind, and there are drawbacks to that. It's also true that your way of thinking has its own pitfalls. If you can prove to me that you are no more a prisoner of your views than I try to be of mine, then you have a future here. Objectivity isn't easy. You have to exercise it."

It was a very clever challenge, Goodley thought. He wondered next if he'd perhaps misjudged the DDCI.

"Will Russell cooperate?"

"Yes, Ismael, he will." Bock said, sipping at a beer. He'd gotten a case of a good German export brew for Fromm, and kept a few for himself. "He thinks we'll be setting off a large conventional bomb to eliminate television coverage of the game."

"Clever, but not actually intelligent." Qati observed. He wanted a beer himself, but could not ask. Besides, he told himself, it would probably upset his stomach, and he'd actually enjoyed three consecutive days of relative health.

"His outlook is limited to tactical matters, yes. On tactical matters he is quite useful, however. His assistance will be crucial to that phase of the operation."

"Fromm is working out well."

"As I thought he would. It really is a pity that he will not see it to fruition. The same with the machinists?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Qati frowned. Not a man who blanched at the sight of blood, neither was he one to kill unnecessarily. He'd had to kill people for reasons of security before, though never this many. It was almost becoming a habit. But, he asked himself, why worry about a few when you plan to kill so many more?

"Have you planned for the consequences of failure or discovery?" Bock asked.

"Yes, I have," Qati replied with a sly smile, followed by an explanation.

"That is ingenious. Good to plan for every contingency."

"I thought you'd like it."

CHAPTER 21

Connectivity

It took two weeks, but something finally came back. A KGB officer in the employ of CIA nosed around and heard something: there might be an ongoing operation about nuclear weapons in Germany. Something being run out of Moscow Center. Golovko himself was overseeing things. People working in KGB Station Berlin were cut out of it. End of report.