Chapter 15
The black Mercedes sped through Tverskaya Avenue in Moscow, heading towards the Kremlin. Inside, Irina and her new boss, who managed the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service, were finishing the final preparations for the meeting. They had been working at the technology transfer deal for the whole winter of 2031 and the spring had seen some meaningful progress, so that the Israelis had sent a high-ranking delegation for the conclusion.
“Your move from the SVR, the foreign intelligence, to the GRU has been a very welcome one, Irina,” Pavel, her new boss, commented. “Your skills in this negotiation with the Israelis are just invaluable.”
“Thank you, Mr. General,” Irina politely answered, keeping a respectful distance. “I got used to the Middle Eastern style of negotiation a long time ago. Despite their conflict, Arabs and Israelis are more akin than they want to admit.”
“I cannot judge about that, but it looks like we are close to a deal. A deal that our rodina badly needs.”
Irina did not need to be reminded. Chinese-armed guerrillas had been constantly stepping up in the Far Eastern districts for three years. The Chinese were arming and infiltrating tens of thousands of soldiers, pretending they were local insurgents asking for more autonomy from Moscow.
After all, they were repeating the same tactics that Russia had used against Ukraine nearly twenty years ago, just on a much bigger scale.
The car slowed down as it moved through the Spasskaya Tower, so that the X-rays security check could scan it. The guests were recognized by the system and let go without even opening the windows, which for Irina was a pity as she could have let some fresh May air inside. The Mercedes eventually took an underground ramp and disappeared into the basement of the Presidential Palace.
Irina and Pavel got out and walked for about fifteen minutes along a maze of corridors. Despite her long career, Irina had never been there and all she could do was follow Pavel.
They eventually entered a windowless white room. The only embellishment was 19th century stucco laid around the walls, representing some kind of floral pattern.
There was only one table inside, the Israeli delegation, with three people, who had been waiting for roughly two hours and sat on the side opposite the door.
As soon as Irina and Pavel entered the room, Eyal stood up and warmly welcomed them, ignoring the long delay.
“Nice to see you again, Pavel. Despite my repeated invitations to come to Tel Aviv, we keep meeting here in Moscow. The two gentlemen who are with me today are Rami and Shlomo, who as you have certainly found out by now, are the deputy Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces and the deputy assistant to the Prime Minister.”
Pavel smiled at Eyal as he shook hands with his guests.
“Spasibo, Eyal. Let me introduce Irina to you, she joined us from our foreign intelligence service a few months ago. I think we can start the meeting now, we have a pretty dense agenda in front of us.”
After two hours of discussions and document reviews, two things were clear. The Israelis wanted to have access to the new combat exoskeleton technology the Russians were developing to equip their special forces, the Spetsnaz, to counter the Chinese insurgency in the Far East, yet they did not want to transfer knowledge of the biodrones in exchange.
“In all frankness,” Eyal said, “I think it’s premature. We do not even know if the new combat armor works outside the test range conditions you showed us. There are too many new systems to be tested in real battle, from the carbon nanotube structure, to the electric actuators. Not to mention the mini gas turbine that is powering it all. Our government will never allow us to give you a tested jewel like our biodrones in exchange for a prototype, no matter how promising it may be.”
“We can easily address your concerns,” Pavel smiled back, “It is already in mass production. We have tested the first one hundred pieces and it works just fine. As for the technology, we went as far as giving Sakhalin Island back to Japan two years ago so as to get their latest robotics research.”
“You mean, this was part of the Russian-Japanese friendship treaty concerning also the long term commitment from Russia to supply natural gas?” Shlomo intervened, frowning at Eyal. “The Mossad should have known.”
“Well, you are not the only ones able to keep treaty annexes a secret,” Irina jumped in to increase the tension in the Israeli delegation. “We do have a long tradition on secrecy as well. Anyway, we can invite some of your special forces to have a look in the battlefield and then reconvene in a few weeks, if you need some further assurance on the quality of the product.”
“What if our special forces get captured in action?” This time the objection came from Rami, the Israeli Defense Forces representative.
“Well, it is a risk,” Pavel replied calmly. “However, we can manage to set the test in a relatively quiet and controlled sector. After all, we are talking about a one-thousand five-hundred mile front, and the area around Lake Baikal is still relatively quiet, so far.”
“I am aware that this does not reduce the risk to zero, though,” Eyal commented.
“The rest depends on your team, Eyal,” Pavel continued, “I am sure you have plenty of Russian-speaking members in your special forces, considering we are the second ethnic group in Israel, and I know that many Israeli citizens of Russian descent still refuse to learn Hebrew. Just tell them what is awaiting them in case they become prisoners.”
“They know they are expendables,” Rami cut in, “Yet even assuming the exoskeleton works, I don’t think this will be a good enough reason to hand over the biodrone’s technology.”
“Mr. Rami,” Pavel continued calmly, “now you are making me feel jealous. You handed the full biodrones package over to the Americans three years ago, in exchange of something valuable to you, which I will not even bother asking about. Don’t you agree our offer is a good one? May I remind you that you have far less leverage and common interests with China than with us? Or do you want us to lose this undeclared war?”
“We are cooperating with you in many ways,” Shlomo came in to support Rami. “The fact is, the electronic fly has the highest security rating in our arsenal. Higher than nuclear weapons, for the level of risk it brings. That’s why we would share the know-how about it with a foreign power only in exceptional cases.”
“Like, for example, preventing information leaks about your Cyprus operations?” Irina abruptly asked.
It took all of Eyal’s power to hide his surprise. Rami and Shlomo gave each other a helpless glance and then looked at Eyal.
“It looks like the three of you have something to discuss on your return flight,” Pavel laughed heartedly. “Let me reassure you, we do not have the full picture yet, however we do have several interesting clues. No one in Russia knows about the file, except our President of course and the two of us here. From what we learned, I am sure you do not want us to start telling other services what we have found so far…or, God forbids, an anonymous hacker starts posting documents on the Internet or emailing newspapers.”
Eyal waited a few seconds after Pavel finished.
“This development might indeed change the stance of our government, but as you said at the beginning, there are a few more steps to take before we can come to an agreement. One of them certainly is that we must precisely assess how the leaks came out and how to prevent them from happening again.”
“He wants us to hand over the mole,” Irina thought to herself, “but we have time to make a decision about it. It’s time to end the meeting now.”
“Eyal, we understand your concerns,” she addressed her guests, “and we will take them into account when closing the deal. You cannot mess around with Russian cover companies, have one-quarter of your population coming from Russia, and pretend there isn’t any leak due to double-loyalty,” Irina said. “After all, we also have a strong sense of belonging to our rodina. In fact it is just like last time with the Nazis, we are fighting a common, mortal enemy.”
The Israelis looked at each other, then Eyal decided to conclude the meeting. He stood up and shook hands with Pavel and Irina.
“I think we are done for today,” he said slowly and coldly. “The terms of your proposal are pretty clear but we need to discuss them as soon as we get back to Tel Aviv. We will follow up two weeks from now.”
When the Mossad delegation left, Pavel moved to the opposite room, switched the lights on, closed the door and told Irina,
“Congratulations on the maskirovka you used to hide the real source, but do you really think they now believe we have a mole in Israel?”
“I do not know, they are professionals like us and won’t believe everything we say without double and triple checks,” Irina answered. “Actually, we started investigating seriously when we realized that much of the revenue that Mossad makes by selling Telomerax in North America - which we got from our latinos informants - is consistently being reinvested in Cyprus by cover up companies. This is the half-truth that got them on the hook. Given their reaction today, it must be something big, worth some further analysis.”
“Unfortunately not, Irina,” Pavel interrupted her, “we have to focus on our issues in the Far East, remember?”
“Of course, Mr.General,” Irina promptly replied. They left the room and headed back to the underground parking lot together.