The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal by David E. Hoffman
Authors: David E. Hoffman
Ads: Link
interesting. I will want to recontact you again later.
Tolkachev: You should be aware that on the 9th I’m going on temporary assignment to Ryazan, on Saturdays it might be difficult to reach me, it is best to call on Sunday like this.
(A pause. Tolkachev was apparently ready to say something else but did not.)
Guilsher: See you soon. Goodbye.
Tolkachev: Goodbye. 10
Guilsher went back to his seat in the theater and sat down. Kissa looked at him: You okay?
Yes, he nodded as the curtain went up and the lights dimmed.
Hathaway had bridled at the stand-down. He felt Turner’s order to stop operations in Moscow was wrongheaded and costly. Certainly, the tantalizing first contact with Tolkachev suggested they should resume full espionage operations. In March, a crisis erupted involving Alexei Kulak, the overweight KGB officer who had been abandoned because of the stand-down. A message from headquarters informed Hathaway that Kulak, then living in Moscow, might face arrest and could be exposed as a spy for the United States. Hathaway felt a special obligation to Kulak, whom he had personally recruited in a New York hotel room. The problem, headquarters reported, was that a new book, just published by the author Edward Jay Epstein, contained enough details to pinpoint Kulak as an American agent. If the KGB followed up on details in the book and arrested him, Kulak would certainly face charges of treason, punishable by death. Headquarters decided that Kulak must be contacted and warned of the breach. A high-risk operation was hastily put together to spirit Kulak out of the Soviet Union, if necessary. Despite his misgivings about Moscow operations, and despite the stand-down, Turner approved the mission to warn Kulak. 11
To carry it out, Hathaway would have to evade KGB surveillance at all costs. Once a week, Hathaway’s secretary had set a familiar pattern of going ice-skating with her husband. Hathaway put on a disguise to look like his secretary, complete with a mask, and left the compound posing as her, with her ice skates in his lap and her husband driving. The militiamen at the gate didn’t notice. Once the car was far enough away from the gate, he ripped off the mask and, filled with anxiety, leaped out of the car. He didn’t know what to expect. When he saw all was quiet, he began a long, winding surveillance detection run for several hours on a cold Moscow night. His plan was to offer Kulak an escape from the Soviet Union, known as exfiltration. Hathaway carried a camera in order to get a recent photograph of Kulak for a new passport. In fact, the Moscow station had never before carried out an exfiltration. Such operations required months of planning, and Hathaway had only days.
After hours of walking the Moscow streets to make sure he was free from surveillance, Hathaway climbed the steps of Kulak’s building, planning to knock on the door. But a dezhurnaya , a female attendant, was sitting there, and she stopped Hathaway. He turned around and left, forced to abort the operation. The next night, he made another attempt and called Kulak on a pay phone from the street. Kulak immediately recognized Hathaway’s distinctive southern Virginia drawl. Hathaway delivered the news about the breach, and Kulak responded quietly, without hesitation or a sense of fear. He thanked Hathaway for the effort but said he would be fine and did not want to be smuggled out of the country. There was nothing more Hathaway could do. Hathaway and the CIA had lost Kulak as an intelligence source. 12
Despite the setback, Hathaway was eager to move ahead with Tolkachev. On March 21, 1978, he sent a cable to headquarters suggesting they move at “full speed.” At the start, he proposed to “pull together a basic commo package which we can first put down black,” meaning by a case officer who was not under KGB surveillance. Then the CIA would telephone Tolkachev and tell him where to pick it up. The package would give Tolkachev a basic
Tolkachev: You should be aware that on the 9th I’m going on temporary assignment to Ryazan, on Saturdays it might be difficult to reach me, it is best to call on Sunday like this.
(A pause. Tolkachev was apparently ready to say something else but did not.)
Guilsher: See you soon. Goodbye.
Tolkachev: Goodbye. 10
Guilsher went back to his seat in the theater and sat down. Kissa looked at him: You okay?
Yes, he nodded as the curtain went up and the lights dimmed.
Hathaway had bridled at the stand-down. He felt Turner’s order to stop operations in Moscow was wrongheaded and costly. Certainly, the tantalizing first contact with Tolkachev suggested they should resume full espionage operations. In March, a crisis erupted involving Alexei Kulak, the overweight KGB officer who had been abandoned because of the stand-down. A message from headquarters informed Hathaway that Kulak, then living in Moscow, might face arrest and could be exposed as a spy for the United States. Hathaway felt a special obligation to Kulak, whom he had personally recruited in a New York hotel room. The problem, headquarters reported, was that a new book, just published by the author Edward Jay Epstein, contained enough details to pinpoint Kulak as an American agent. If the KGB followed up on details in the book and arrested him, Kulak would certainly face charges of treason, punishable by death. Headquarters decided that Kulak must be contacted and warned of the breach. A high-risk operation was hastily put together to spirit Kulak out of the Soviet Union, if necessary. Despite his misgivings about Moscow operations, and despite the stand-down, Turner approved the mission to warn Kulak. 11
To carry it out, Hathaway would have to evade KGB surveillance at all costs. Once a week, Hathaway’s secretary had set a familiar pattern of going ice-skating with her husband. Hathaway put on a disguise to look like his secretary, complete with a mask, and left the compound posing as her, with her ice skates in his lap and her husband driving. The militiamen at the gate didn’t notice. Once the car was far enough away from the gate, he ripped off the mask and, filled with anxiety, leaped out of the car. He didn’t know what to expect. When he saw all was quiet, he began a long, winding surveillance detection run for several hours on a cold Moscow night. His plan was to offer Kulak an escape from the Soviet Union, known as exfiltration. Hathaway carried a camera in order to get a recent photograph of Kulak for a new passport. In fact, the Moscow station had never before carried out an exfiltration. Such operations required months of planning, and Hathaway had only days.
After hours of walking the Moscow streets to make sure he was free from surveillance, Hathaway climbed the steps of Kulak’s building, planning to knock on the door. But a dezhurnaya , a female attendant, was sitting there, and she stopped Hathaway. He turned around and left, forced to abort the operation. The next night, he made another attempt and called Kulak on a pay phone from the street. Kulak immediately recognized Hathaway’s distinctive southern Virginia drawl. Hathaway delivered the news about the breach, and Kulak responded quietly, without hesitation or a sense of fear. He thanked Hathaway for the effort but said he would be fine and did not want to be smuggled out of the country. There was nothing more Hathaway could do. Hathaway and the CIA had lost Kulak as an intelligence source. 12
Despite the setback, Hathaway was eager to move ahead with Tolkachev. On March 21, 1978, he sent a cable to headquarters suggesting they move at “full speed.” At the start, he proposed to “pull together a basic commo package which we can first put down black,” meaning by a case officer who was not under KGB surveillance. Then the CIA would telephone Tolkachev and tell him where to pick it up. The package would give Tolkachev a basic
Similar Books
