Charles McCarry - The Miernik Dossier

“Did you think any further about our conversation of last night?” he asked. “I had difficulty sleeping. I dreamt of Zofia, waiting in the coffeehouse all alone. No one came for her. Finally a secret policeman came and began to read a book. She went with him. I saw her go with him. A very bad dream.”

“There’s something I’d like to ask you,” I said. “Did you fall off your skis with the idea that I’d be more tenderhearted if you had your arm in a sling?”

Miernik gave me a shocked look. “Of course not,” he said. “I might have killed myself at that speed.”

This is true enough. Maybe he didn’t know what he was doing on the conscious level, but he makes me wonder. There was such perfection in his victimhood that I began to take bets with myself that some part of his punished brain told him to have the accident. I have played the role of sympathizer for so long that it’s beginning to have some reality for me. Watching him struggle with his teacup, observing the flashes of pain playing across his injured face, I began for the first time to think seriously about rescuing Zofia for him.

It might be worth the risk just to see what scene Miernik will play next. That, at least, was the thought I had with the part of me that is a professional agent. The situation is very interesting from that point of view: he has left just enough unsaid to intrigue me. (How did Zofia get from Warsaw to Bratislava? How did Miernik, who professes to have no friend in the world, make all those “arrangements” for visas and a quiet stroll across a fortified frontier?) Of course he must know this, and be counting on it. His attempts to outwit me are annoying as hell. I tell myself that I can walk in and out of Czechoslovakia and confound the son of a bitch by doing so. One American is worth any five Communists.

At the same time I have to keep in mind the possibility that he may be exactly what he says he is. This becomes a smaller possibility every day, but it is still there. Going into Czechoslovakia may be the way to find out. The plot is interesting. There is an artistry to what we are doing: spies are like novelists-except that spies use living people and real places to make their works of art. More and more I want to see what I can do with these characters I’ve been given.

1. Christopher made telephone contact at 2345 hours 14 June and reported to my hotel room at 0245 hours 15 June for an operational meeting. He submitted a written report (attached), which despite its poor organization and extraneous matter provides interesting new light on Miernik.

2. Christopher regards Miernik’s request that he cross into Czechoslovakia to “rescue” Miernik’s “sister” as operational opportunity. He estimates that Miernik has set up this venture as a means of testing Christopher’s willingness to (a) trust Miernik and (b) be manipulated by Miernik. In Christopher’s reasoning, a successful “rescue” of the “sister” would increase chances that Miernik will make an overt attempt to recruit Christopher as an asset for the operation Miernik plans in Sudan. Such a move on Miernik’s part would certainly be consistent with the clumsy tactics he has used so far with Christopher.

3. To minimize risk, Christopher proposes changes in the scenario Miernik has laid on for the “rescue.” Instead of following Miernik’s plan, Christopher would enter Czechoslovakia in the secret compartment of Khatar’s Cadillac. (He believes that Prince Kalash, who has a diplomatic passport and would presumably have no difficulty in getting a genuine twenty-four-hour Czech tourist visa, could be persuaded to drive the car.) Christopher proposes to bring the girl out overtly, using public transportation. He will require two Swiss passports with Czech visas and entry stamps, made out as if to a married couple, to be used by the girl and himself on exit from Czechoslovakia. He requires also supportive documentation (i.e., driver’s licenses, Swiss identity cards, membership cards, and Czech currency). No photograph of Zofia Miernik is available, but Christopher has seen a picture of her and states that she is a common physical type; a believable likeness can be found in the files and used for the passport.

4. Christopher would bypass altogether Miernik’s proposed meeting with “the man in the black Citroën.” He rightly regards this element in Miernik’s plan as a possible attempt at entrapment. On my own discretion I told Christopher of Miernik’s contacts with Kirnov, including Kirnov’s recent letter to Miernik. It seems possible, in light of Christopher’s new information, that this letter was a signal that the “rescue” operation had been arranged. It is not probable that the cutout in the Citroën will be Kirnov himself, but this remains a possibility.

5. Miernik states to Christopher that the “rescue” attempt must be made at 1540 hours 16 June. The time and date cannot be altered. A river steamer departs Bratislava, westbound on the Donau-Danube for Vienna, at 1710 hours. Christopher proposes to exit Czechoslovakia on this boat.

COMMENT: The operation by Christopher does not, in my opinion, present an unacceptable risk. What is lacking is a contingency plan to exit Czechoslovakia alone if his attempt to contact Zofia Miernik fails, or if he decides that he is in danger of arrest. As we have no assets of any kind in the Bratislava area, he would be on his own in any emergency. The only border he can cross is the Austrian. The Vienna station has a standing arrangement with an officer of the Czech border guards at a point 12 kilometers east of Drasenhofen. A night crossing can be arranged at that point on short notice. I propose that a time be set for a clandestine crossing by Christopher on a contingency basis, and that he be provided with the information necessary to find the crossing point before he enters Czechoslovakia. Transport in the form of a motorcycle can be provided for him in a predetermined location in Bratislava.

Because of the short time element, Headquarters is requested to grant its immediate approval for the operation outlined above, bearing in mind not only the risk to Christopher but also the possible dividends of success-i.e., a closer relationship to Miernik with the possibility that he will be encouraged to invite Christopher’s participation in his activities in Sudan.

1. CHRISTOPHER’S ENTRY INTO CZECHOSLOVAKIA FOR ONE DAY ONLY 16 JUNE APPROVED IN ACCORDANCE YOUR PLAN ON CONDITION ALTERNATE ESCAPE ROUTE IS FEASIBLE AND ARRANGED IN ADVANCE…

Christopher and Khatar went out foraging for girls last evening (14th June), leaving me to entertain Miernik, who is in considerable pain from his injuries but as chatty as ever. Nothing new developed from an interminable conversation. He dwelt on the problem of his sister who is marooned behind the Iron Curtain. Her fate is much on his mind. Bearing in mind our information that no such university student as Zofia Miernik exists in Poland, I asked him a number of questions about her studies. He spun a very circumstantial story about her activities as a student of art history at Warsaw University; she is a painter of some talent; she is beautiful (hard to believe of Miernik’s sister, but he has a photograph of a pretty blonde he says is Zofia); his fondest wish is to have her join him wherever destiny may take him. Etc.

2. After breakfast this morning I joined Christopher for a walk around the Inner Stadt. Miernik has been talking to him too about his sister. I told Christopher that I regarded Miernik as a mytho-maniac, that I did not believe in the existence of the sister. Christopher is unbelievably discreet for an American; he almost never asks a direct question about anything. But my statement startled him, and he put me through a sharp interrogation. I told him only that my doubts were instinctive, not being based on any real information. I don’t know whether he accepted this explanation.