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Authors: William Safire
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presumed the KGB must now be turning itself inside out to reestablish contact with him.
Berensky further assumed that the CIA had penetrated the KGB enough to determine that a sleeper was using the former Party assets and current KGB intelligence to amass a fortune. He did not believe U.S. newspaper accounts of the CIA’s handing over counterintelligence to the FBI; that was almost certainly disinformation of the sort that Shelepin pioneered in the fifties.
That meant that both the Russian and American espionage services were looking for him and trying to trace the fortune. In addition, the Feliks people—who knew of his existence, and whose money had formed his original stake—were surely using all their underworld contacts to find him. Sooner rather than later, the sleeper was certain,one of these organizations would break through the complex series of cutouts and fronts he had established to hide and leverage the assets; at that point, his historic decision of what to do with the money might be wrested from his hands. That was why he felt an urgency to make big money in the coming quarter.
The final intelligence from Control about Russia’s oil consortium with Japan had been useful; it meant an increase in the supply of oil, and augured a small dip that day in the world price. Through a series of investments in financial derivatives based on oil futures, he had made a couple of hundred million dollars. The gold production figures were more valuable; his London gold broker relied on the likelihood of a shortfall in Russian production to take a strong position.
But this was relatively small potatoes. Inside information about Russian dealings would not permit dramatic gains, even when leveraged as heavily as Berensky now could manage. For major moves, he needed to get key figures from the KGB sources inside the U.S. government. Then he could play currencies, the most concealable major form of speculation.
Control’s death made that more difficult: the mole in Washington did not want to be contacted, and he would have to wait; the agent at the Federal Reserve in New York was unknown to him, and passed along information only through the Washington man.
In retrospect, the sleeper knew he had erred in not taking Control’s unconscious body out and drowning him. Of course, his lack of firmness had turned out to be fortunate: if he had killed the greedy handler, Berensky would have gone back to sleep in the bungalow and been blown up. But he could not count on that luck in the future. He vowed to act with more vigor next time a confederate showed signs of crossing him.
Where was he most vulnerable? In Bern and in Helsinki. The banker in Bern was the longtime contact of, and probably partner of, the faithless Control. The banker had on deposit only the first $3 billion in gold—the original Communist Party stake—but it was likely that he shared Control’s plans to seize the entire fortune. Berensky would be safer if the banker died.
The economist in Helsinki had an idea of the sleeper’s identity and could be a source of blackmail. She was connected to too many agencies: certainly Stasi in Germany, probably the KGB or Russian ForeignIntelligence, possibly his Washington contact. The sleeper was more inclined to trust her, however; there was a simple way to put her loyalty to the test.
He dialed her direct extension at the Econometric Institute in Helsinki and recognized the voice that answered the phone.
“This is Dr. Gold,” he announced briskly. “The veterinarian in North Carolina. Your vet in Davos sent the slides of your Bernese mountain dog’s lung to my laboratory.”
“Of course,” she said. “How good of you to call so promptly. What’s to become of my Berner Sennenhund?” She used the Swiss name of the breed; Berensky admired her quick take of an unrehearsed code.
“The prognosis is not good. Your Berner has a form of cancer that is a genetic fault of the breed. I have to advise you to put
Berensky further assumed that the CIA had penetrated the KGB enough to determine that a sleeper was using the former Party assets and current KGB intelligence to amass a fortune. He did not believe U.S. newspaper accounts of the CIA’s handing over counterintelligence to the FBI; that was almost certainly disinformation of the sort that Shelepin pioneered in the fifties.
That meant that both the Russian and American espionage services were looking for him and trying to trace the fortune. In addition, the Feliks people—who knew of his existence, and whose money had formed his original stake—were surely using all their underworld contacts to find him. Sooner rather than later, the sleeper was certain,one of these organizations would break through the complex series of cutouts and fronts he had established to hide and leverage the assets; at that point, his historic decision of what to do with the money might be wrested from his hands. That was why he felt an urgency to make big money in the coming quarter.
The final intelligence from Control about Russia’s oil consortium with Japan had been useful; it meant an increase in the supply of oil, and augured a small dip that day in the world price. Through a series of investments in financial derivatives based on oil futures, he had made a couple of hundred million dollars. The gold production figures were more valuable; his London gold broker relied on the likelihood of a shortfall in Russian production to take a strong position.
But this was relatively small potatoes. Inside information about Russian dealings would not permit dramatic gains, even when leveraged as heavily as Berensky now could manage. For major moves, he needed to get key figures from the KGB sources inside the U.S. government. Then he could play currencies, the most concealable major form of speculation.
Control’s death made that more difficult: the mole in Washington did not want to be contacted, and he would have to wait; the agent at the Federal Reserve in New York was unknown to him, and passed along information only through the Washington man.
In retrospect, the sleeper knew he had erred in not taking Control’s unconscious body out and drowning him. Of course, his lack of firmness had turned out to be fortunate: if he had killed the greedy handler, Berensky would have gone back to sleep in the bungalow and been blown up. But he could not count on that luck in the future. He vowed to act with more vigor next time a confederate showed signs of crossing him.
Where was he most vulnerable? In Bern and in Helsinki. The banker in Bern was the longtime contact of, and probably partner of, the faithless Control. The banker had on deposit only the first $3 billion in gold—the original Communist Party stake—but it was likely that he shared Control’s plans to seize the entire fortune. Berensky would be safer if the banker died.
The economist in Helsinki had an idea of the sleeper’s identity and could be a source of blackmail. She was connected to too many agencies: certainly Stasi in Germany, probably the KGB or Russian ForeignIntelligence, possibly his Washington contact. The sleeper was more inclined to trust her, however; there was a simple way to put her loyalty to the test.
He dialed her direct extension at the Econometric Institute in Helsinki and recognized the voice that answered the phone.
“This is Dr. Gold,” he announced briskly. “The veterinarian in North Carolina. Your vet in Davos sent the slides of your Bernese mountain dog’s lung to my laboratory.”
“Of course,” she said. “How good of you to call so promptly. What’s to become of my Berner Sennenhund?” She used the Swiss name of the breed; Berensky admired her quick take of an unrehearsed code.
“The prognosis is not good. Your Berner has a form of cancer that is a genetic fault of the breed. I have to advise you to put
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