James Barrington - Foxbat

‘Third, the pathologist wasn’t absolutely certain because of the extensive damage to the skull caused by the bullet, but he thinks Lenkov received at least one violent blow to the back of his head, probably administered with a cosh or club.

‘And, finally, the body was found in woodland outside the city, and we know for sure he was killed there. The forensic evidence is overwhelming, even if we didn’t have a witness who actually heard the shot. Anyway, muggers normally look for their prey in city streets. It was a deliberate act of murder, no mistake.’

Bykov nodded. It looked as if the Perm police had done their work thoroughly. ‘That’s clear enough for us, Superintendent. But we believe the killing of this young Air Force officer may have wider implications affecting national security. We suspect the perpetrators are still here in Perm, and all we’re asking is that the local police extend us a little cooperation.’

‘What kind of cooperation?’ Wanov asked.

‘We’d like as little publicity as possible. Have you released details of Lenkov’s name and profession?’

‘Not yet.’ The police officer shook his head. ‘His parents live in Moscow, but they’re away somewhere at the moment. We can’t release details of the identity of the victim until they’ve been informed.’

‘So who knows about the murder here in Perm?’

‘It was reported in the local newspaper.’

‘What exactly was said?’

‘Just that the body of an unidentified young man had been found apparently murdered in the woods outside the city.’

‘How did you eventually identify him?’

‘A small stroke of luck. Whoever killed him took away his wallet, and emptied it, then discarded it. However, they overlooked an internal pocket where Lenkov kept his identity card. We compared the photograph with what was left of his face, and that was that.’

‘So who exactly knows he was an Air Force pilot?’

‘Just ourselves, and Lenkov’s commanding officer at Bolshoye Savino. Probably no one else.’

‘Can you keep it that way for a couple of days?’ Bykov asked.

‘If you can explain why, yes.’

‘Superintendent Wanov, my investigation is classified at a very high level, well above Top Secret. My colleague here’ – he gestured to Richter, who hadn’t said a word since they’d entered the room – ‘is an intelligence officer representing the government of Great Britain.’ That was news to Richter, but he said nothing.

Wanov looked at him uncertainly, apparently torn between his desire to find out just what the hell Bykov was talking about, and his discomfort at having an identified Western intelligence agent sitting there studying him silently.

‘Nothing I’m about to tell you is to leave this room, or is to be discussed with anyone else, at any level, at any time.’

Wanov nodded, then found his voice. ‘I understand.’

Bykov continued. ‘We believe that Lenkov was approached by agents of a foreign power and asked to steal a Mikoyan-Gurevich interceptor, one of the aircraft based at Bolshoye Savino. We assume he refused to carry out this act of treachery, and was killed because of that. We also believe those same agents are still here somewhere in Perm, and that they’ll be currently trying to suborn another officer from the airfield. It’s essential that we find out who these agents are, and who they represent. That means catching them in the act, and to achieve that we need your assistance and that of your officers.’

‘How are you going to do it?’

Bykov smiled. ‘At this precise moment, I’ve no idea. A lot will depend on what we can learn from the dead man’s commanding officer and from his fellow pilots. If we’re right, and he was approached by foreign agents, we’re hoping he might have talked to someone else about it. That way, we might even be able to get a lead of some kind. That’s our first job, but if we do manage to locate these agents, we’ll need you to provide enough men to ensure that they don’t slip through our fingers.’

Wanov nodded slowly. ‘That won’t be a problem, but make sure you give me as much notice as you can.’

Bykov stood up. ‘Right. Now,’ he said, ‘we must get to the airfield. We have an appointment there in just under thirty minutes.’

Office of the Associate Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Langley, Virginia

‘So the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has got itself a Foxbat. So what?’ Walter Hicks leant back in his seat, pulled out a stubby cigar and – in complete defiance of Langley’s rigid no-smoking-anywhere-in-the-building rule, imposed by William Webster in September 1990 – lit it. ‘So what?’ he repeated.

And that was, Muldoon had to concede, a good question. Why should the CIA – or anyone else, for that matter – care in the least if the North Koreans had obtained a forty-year-old supersonic interceptor? But he suspected there had to be more to it than that.

‘If it was just one Foxbat, I wouldn’t care either, Walter,’ Muldoon replied, ‘but after seeing that picture from N-PIC I did some investigating, and I don’t like what I found. We only got this image because of the request from the South Koreans. Now, I think it’s significant that the first and only unplanned reconnaissance pass over T’ae’tan for the last two years should reveal the presence of a Foxbat. It appears the NKs have been timing their operations to coincide with periods when none of our birds have been in range. Yet, if they’re just upgrading their air force with MiG-25s, why would they bother?’

‘I suppose the North Koreans might consider re-equipping with Foxbats as an upgrade,’ Hicks mused, ‘but those aircraft are old and not that easy to fly. I’d have thought they’d be better advised to try stealing a few more Floggers or Fishbeds – or maybe even Fulcrums if they were feeling ambitious.’

Both the MiG-21 Fishbed and the MiG-23 Flogger are now obsolete, but are still being operated by North Korea. The MiG-29 Fulcrum was designed by the Russians as a direct competitor to the F-15 and F-16 interceptors, and is perhaps the most manoeuvrable fighter aircraft in the world, apart from the Harrier. With Mach 2 performance, it’s a formidable adversary.

‘Maybe they couldn’t source any other aircraft type. Don’t forget, their principal arms supplier now is China, not Russia. And if the NKs did manage to get their hands on some Fulcrums, keeping them in the air might prove a nightmare. Where would they find the spares? Do they even have maintainers skilled enough to work on them? The Foxbat, however, is an old and tested design with no fancy electronics.’

Hicks nodded. ‘Yes… maybe they just thought they needed something quicker than a Shenyang F-5, and located a source that could supply MiG-25s instead. Perhaps it really is that simple.’

‘I doubt it. I went back to check the Keyhole imagery for T’ae’tan for the last couple of years. You remember that in October of ninety-five the NKs relocated twenty-odd Ilyushin Il-28 bombers to that same airfield?’

Hicks nodded. ‘Caused some jitters in the South when they realized that put them within ten minutes’ flying time of Seoul.’

‘Exactly,’ Muldoon nodded. ‘And they still had the F-5 fighters based there. Well, according to the N-PIC analysts, they haven’t seen a single Ilyushin at T’ae’tan for the last eighteen months, and they’ve only been able to identify ten individual F-5s. That’s way short of the number we believed was based there.’

‘Perhaps they’ve kicked the bombers somewhere else. Maybe they thought having them so close to the DMZ was too provocative. As I recall, Seoul did complain about them.’

‘Maybe they did,’ Muldoon nodded, ‘but there are other things that worry me, like the new constructions we’re seeing there. T’ae’tan was never a major base, just a single runway and a couple of hangars dug into the hillside on the south side of the field, but the NKs have done a lot of work there recently. It’s difficult to tell from the satellite pictures, because of the overhanging rock, but it looks like they may have excavated four new hangars, and they’ve certainly built what looks like a new administration block close by.’