Command Authority

23

After being uprooted by the radiation scare at the White House, Cathy and the kids decided to move back to their home in Maryland for the cleanup. Jack, on the other hand, wanted to continue working in the West Wing, so he moved across Pennsylvania Avenue to Blair House, the official guest residence of the White House.

The cleanup across the street in the White House residence began almost immediately. Most solid surfaces needed a thorough cleaning with Decon 90, a powerful detergent containing a three-percent solution of potassium hydroxide. The surfaces were then revarnished or repainted, and retested for the polonium isotope to ensure there were no lingering traces.

But the bathroom Golovko had visited had to be completely destroyed. The enamel of the toilet and the sink had been penetrated by the material emanating from Golovko’s body, and this could not be cleaned by detergent, so the enamel surfaces were removed and smashed into small pieces, and these pieces were stored at a special processing facility in a lead-lined container. The half-life of polonium-210 was a relatively short 138 days, meaning the material could be more safely handled and disposed of only after letting it sit for several months.

While this was taking place, similar decontamination operations began at Golovko’s Capitol Hill hotel, on board the aircraft that took him from Kansas to Washington, and in both his hotel in Lawrence and the rooms affected at the University of Kansas.

While jackhammers were tearing the radiated bathroom fixtures out of the White House residence, Jack Ryan was sitting at his desk in the Oval Office when he took the phone call letting him know that Sergey Golovko died in the ICU at George Washington.

He hung up the phone and headed over to the sitting area in front of his desk, where he sat down and relayed the news to Scott Adler, Mary Pat Foley, and Jay Canfield. They were meeting today to discuss Volodin’s announcement concerning the expanded powers of the FSB, and the news of Golovko’s death, while no surprise, only made the topic of conversation timelier.

Ryan rubbed his eyes under his glasses. “The KGB is back. Call it whatever the hell you want to call it, dress it up in designer suits and give it a Madison Avenue PR department, but it’s the same old gang we all know and hate.”

Mary Pat Foley said, “You know, one could make the argument that the new FSB is more powerful than the KGB ever was. The KGB did not have real decision-making power within the Soviet Union. Not like many think. Their job was to advise the Communist Party. They didn’t call the shots. But now… now the intelligence officers both spy and run the show.” She paused. “It’s worse now.”

Ryan said, “The question is, how will the promotion of Talanov change things?”

Jay Canfield responded, “We can expect action on all fronts. Talanov’s reign at FSB has been characterized by his use of proxies as a force multiplier for his agency. Rebel groups in Georgia, union workers in Ukraine, organized-crime groups working for him in Chechnya and the Baltic.”

Foley agreed. “Every intel agency does this. Hell, we use proxy forces to some extent, but Talanov is going back to the KGB model by making it the centerpiece of his foreign intelligence strategy. Volodin is trying to pull all the bordering nations into Russia’s direct control, so you can be sure Talanov will execute his marching orders with an eye toward destabilizing countries that don’t toe the Kremlin line.”

Scott Adler said, “Volodin’s aim is to institute something like a new Warsaw Pact. Once that happens, in addition to hundreds of millions of people losing their liberty and self-determination, Europe will be completely squeezed.”

Ryan said, “When I talked to Golovko he was very concerned about Talanov. He said it was particularly suspicious how he came out of nowhere to lead the FSB.”

“I agree with him,” Foley said. “When Volodin made this announcement I reached out to other friendly agencies to see if they had anything substantive on Talanov that we didn’t. Of course, we’ve looked into him before, when he was picked to head FSB, for example, but I wanted to make sure no stone was left unturned concerning him.”

“What did you learn?”

“Little officially,” Foley admitted. “He was the head of the FSB in Novosibirsk, the largest city in Siberia, before coming to Moscow last year and taking over as head of internal security. We did a full workup on him as a matter of course, but there are a lot of blanks. We found rumors that he was ex-GRU, and he was in Chechnya, but nothing conclusive. He is the most opaque intelligence chief Russia has had since back in the Soviet Union days.”

“Sergey confirmed he was GRU,” Jack said, and Mary Pat jotted a note down on a pad in her lap. Jack asked, “How has Talanov stayed so low-profile?”

“It’s not that surprising, really. Look at Volodin himself. We know he was KGB in the mid to late eighties, then FSB for a short time. When the Soviet Union fell apart, he went into banking, made a few billion, and then dabbled in politics in his home of Saint Petersburg. He’s been such a high-profile businessman for so long it’s easy to forget he used to be a spy.”

Canfield said, “His official biography says he was just a KGB desk jockey in Moscow, and we’ve never turned up information suggesting differently.”

“Volodin is an autocrat, but he has given Talanov incredible power. Why?” Ryan asked.

Adler answered, “Because he respects his abilities, I assume.”

Foley added, “Sure, but also because he trusts him.”

Jack pressed the issue. “What the hell did a GRU man and a police chief from Siberia do to earn such a high level of trust? Volodin doesn’t have anyone as a closer confidant.”

“It is an interesting question.”

“Posing it is the easy part. Finding out the answers is the tough part.”

Foley nodded. “That’s my cue. I’ll get to work.”

Something occurred to Jack: “Mary Pat, when I asked you what we knew about Talanov, you said we knew little ‘officially.’ What did you mean by that?”

“Oh, there was the odd rumor thrown around, but nothing substantive.”

“Like what?”

Foley waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, just uncorroborated things that don’t really check out. The Finns had a report that he was a KGB niner, but none of the niners we know want to claim him.”

Jay Canfield said, “I’m sorry. What’s a niner?”

Ryan answered for Mary Pat: “Wow, Jay, you are young, but you are old enough to remember the Soviet Union. ‘Niner’ is what we call their Ninth Chief Directorate. Their bodyguards, protection detail.”

Canfield held up his hands. “Sorry. I was a Near East guy. USSR wasn’t my beat. I know about Ninth Directorate, just not the nickname. Anyway, I think that’s bad intel from the Finns. There is a special school for Ninth Directorate, and we had the ex-chief of that school on our payroll in the nineties. He gave us all the names, and Talanov wasn’t one of them.”

Mary Pat added, “The Germans had intel that he was GRU, after serving in the Army as a paratrooper in Afghanistan. They said he was involved in the initial invasion in 1979.”

Jack thought that one over. “That sounds about right. He would have been in his early twenties then. GRU didn’t fall apart the way the KGB did, so we didn’t have as much access to their personnel information.”

“That’s true.”

“Anything else?” Ryan asked.

“Nothing real. The Brits had a crazy rumor they picked up about him, but they stressed it was uncorroborated and highly suspect.”

“Which was?”

Foley didn’t seem at all convinced about what she was telling the President. “That he was an assassin. Back in the eighties, there were wild rumors about a lone KGB hit man running around both Eastern and Western Europe killing people on Moscow’s behalf. No one could ever find him, or even prove he existed.”

Jack’s eyes widened. “Wait. Are you talking about Zenith?”

“That’s right. The rumor at the time was that this KGB über-assassin’s code name was Zenith. You remember that?”

“Hell, Mary Pat. I was in the UK when that all happened. I knew one of the victims.”

“Yes, that’s right. Of course. Anyway, years and years after the fact, the Brits had a single source who ID’d Zenith as an ex — GRU man named Talanov who had been a paratrooper in Afghanistan.”

Ryan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. For the first time in the conversation, he raised his voice. “Are you saying Roman Talanov is Zenith?”

Foley shook her head vigorously. “No, I’m not saying that. I’m saying one guy told that story to British intelligence and it made it into his file. Again, this was single-source intel, and they were never able to get any confirmation. You know how it is, there is a bushel of chaff out there for each grain of wheat. I looked into our file on the Zenith murder investigation, and we came to the conclusion that there was no Soviet hit man killing bankers and intelligence agents in the West.”

Ryan said, “The Brits pinned it on German terrorists.”

Foley said, “That’s right, the Red Army Faction. An apartment in Berlin was raided by police, several terrorists were killed, and evidence was found linking them to the so-called Zenith killings.”

It was quiet in the room for a moment. The three people sitting in front of Ryan could all tell he was thinking back to some point in the past, but they patiently waited for him to speak. Finally he said, “I was never convinced they had the right culprits.”

Foley said, “But Mr. President, remember, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, hundreds of ex — KGB spies were only too happy to tell us about their exploits. We have a lot of information about KGB operations personnel in that time period. There was never any proof Zenith existed, and no one ever mentioned the name Talanov. The Russians did their own investigation and came up blank.”

“It could have been run off-book. Or Zenith might not have been a KGB asset, but something else,” Ryan said.

“What else?” Canfield asked.

Ryan shrugged. “I’d like to know what the SIS has on this matter.”

Foley tapped her pen on the notepad on her lap for a moment. “Excuse me for saying this, but this isn’t like you. You’ve been at this too long to chase rumors.”

“Indulge me, Mary Pat.”

She shrugged. “You’re the President. But remember, that was thirty years ago. Some of the players aren’t going to be around anymore. Others likely have forgotten.”

Ryan thought it over. “We could ask SIS for a look at the raw data on the Zenith case.”

“Whatever you say. I’ll assign someone to it as soon as we get the files.”

Jack said, “How ’bout we bring in someone from outside to go over it? Someone who was active back then. Someone who knew the Soviet Union. The players, the bureaucracy. The times.”

“You have anyone in mind?”

“What about Ed? Do you think he’d be interested?”

“Are you kidding? He’d jump at the chance.”

“Great. We can get him some office space next door in the OEOB.” The Old Executive Office Building was maintained by White House Office of Administration, and it contained many offices used by White House personnel. “He can go through the paperwork on the case, see if he can find anything that would either tie Talanov to Zenith or rule him out.”

Foley stood to leave. “If you don’t mind me saying so, this sounds personal.”

“You’re right, it is. That event was very personal to me at the time. But this is more than that. We all admit we know so little about the second-most-powerful man in Russia. If he was, in fact, an active KGB assassin thirty years ago, that is damn well germane to the present. And if this turns up nothing at all, then at least we know we gave it a look.”

Mary Pat said, “I’ll call Ed as soon as I get back to my office.”