by Q (edited by D.Muk)
"This
is the first time I work with special S groups before." The young KGB agent
said to team leader. "But they look very good. I wish I had some of them for
my own collection."
"Not while we're working. We got to sneak Group Three into American Embassy
here and that will need lot of effort. We have to swap out their statues and
then move the Group Three into place. Then we need to get Group Three out and
put statues in again later. Is means I don't want you to let your mind stray."
"Yes Comrade Major." The young agent said. "But they are beautiful. I hope to
work with them again."
"If you do as I order you might get to do that. But not until then." The leader
of KGB team in Athens looked over the plans of the embassy. It would be a hard
with all the security guarding the building for the meeting in couple of days.
But the KGB team had found a way into the building. It would need a lot of work,
but they could do it. "We practice again tonight on getting the girls into the
building. I want you to remember everything we say and do tonight."
"Yes Comrade Major." The young agent took his hand from the statue. He looked
and saw what looked like a crack. He then looked closer and saw it seemed like
a piece of the covering could fall off. He glanced around and then followed
the leader. He would say something later.
"Good. Now make sure the statues are covered well and tell Igor to lock the
door this time when we leave. Nobody will walk in like last time." The major
was angry that his KGB agents forgot to lock doors. Anybody could walk in with
on their things! Moscow would not like that and not like it if they lost something
important. Thinking of Moscow unhappy made him uneasy. People has disappeared
for less.
"Should I set the timers on Group Three?"
"No. The batteries don't have enough power left to start the timer right now.
Leave them on normal setting." The major wish they had Western batteries that
lasted longer. But Moscow had not given them any. "They won't know the difference."
They locked the doors of the building. The KGB team were pretending to be a
company buying and selling artwork which made easier moving and carrying large
boxes. There was expensive artwork in the store, and the special equipment and
supplies the agents needed for spying on the West. All were important to their
cover and the major was angry that the team forgot that last time. Just a couple
boys but it was not good.
He wanted more people to help and to watch the store. But Moscow couldn't bring
in more people fast enough. So he didn't have enough people to watch the safe
house and do the operation at the same time. It was bad but he had orders from
Moscow and they had to follow them. Before he left the house the major looked
over the street and make sure nobody had seen anything. Then Igor locked the
door and the team drove out to practice the operation. Everything had to perfect
and practice was important.
Two hours later the Greek police crashed through the door looking for smugglers.
"This way... this way." The Greek policeman said in bad English. "This way...
this way."
"Yeah. This way." Allen said as he followed the policeman. He was unhappy at
being woken from the Embassy for some simple crime. "And I've got to work tomorrow."
"Hi Allen." Allen's boss at the American Embassy and his boss as local head
of CIA Athens, said to Allen when he got in. "Sorry to wake you, but something
has come up."
"That sounds like it always does. What's up?" Allen look around the store with
all expensive statues and yawned. "Looks like some store."
"Yeah, a store used by art smugglers. That what the Greek police thought when
they got in here. There was nobody around. Too bad, because they also found
something surprising."
"What?" Allen asked, following the other man into a back room where other CIA
agents in Athens were digging things out. There were more statues but something
else as well. Equipment that had only one purpose. "Wow! Look like somebody
wants to play spy here."
"More." His boss said. "Looks like somebody has a nice safe house here. From
the equipment and supplies here it looks like they might be KGB."
"Looks like KGB gear, for sure. Made in USSR explosives, weapons, disguises,
radios. Uniforms for everybody here in Athens." Allen carefully looked over
the stuff the other CIA agents had found. "IDs for all sort of places. Plans
for every major building in the city and more. Looks like they can get into
anyplace they want!"
"Yes." The boss said angrily. "We found the plans to our Embassy here. And information
on the conference in couple of days. Security, what everybody is doing, which
rooms, everything! There's a leak somewhere, a mole telling them this stuff."
"That's bad. If they know everything about the conference, what else do they
know?" Allen looked at the blueprint. There were strange drawings on them, things
overlaid on the normal crisp lines of archtecture.
"Greek police are looking for the guys running the store. But they probably
are high-tailing it back to Moscow right now. At least we closed this station
down."
"Wonder how they got everything across the border?" Allen asked as he looked
at the rooms. Some of statues looked very good. Very familiar in an intriguing
way...
"Probably inside some statues or other artworks being shipped here. Nobody looks
for statues coming into Greece. Good way to hide stuff. By the way, watch
your step," the chief said, "We disarmed a booby bomb set to blow up in case
the wrong people got into the room. Where they get their know-how, I don't know."
"KGB are prepared. Buy materials from local stores. Lot of people who sell them."
Allen looked at four of the statues. They seemed very life-like but were all
carved from marble and yet they looked like something he had seen before. "Wait!
Those four statues are – rather, look like – something from..?"
"Our Embassy yes. Don't know why the KGB has copies of those statues. I'm having
people check out our statues right now to see if they did anything to them.
So far, nothing." The boss looked at the stone figures again. "And only these
four match the ones at the Embassy."
The statues were beautiful, white marble shaped like women. All their slender
length could be seen in naked beauty. Each was posed in the classical style
of Greek statues, like they were mischievious Goddesses, frozen into stone.
"Must have been thinking of doing something." Allen said. He heard something,
seen something before Athens, but the details were eluding him, playing hide-and-seek
inside his fuzzy brain. "Where were the matching statues in the embassy placed?"
"The room where the conference is being held. We think the KGB are going to
install some bugs in them and swap these with ours."
Allen tried to move one of the statues. It seemed as dense and heavy as marble.
"In marble? A very hard job." He tapped the statue's leg and got a solid sound.
Then something seem to fall off one of the figures. He looked down and saw a
white piece of the statue laying on the concrete floor. "What the..?" He leaned
down and looked at another flaking piece next to a thin cord going into something
under the statue's pedestal. He then touched it, tracing along the mostly hidden
line, looked up and saw where it was leading to.
"What are you doing?" The local CIA head said as Allen seemed to grab at the
statue and started pulling at it. "Are you crazy? What are you doing? You're
going to break it - that's evidence. "
"A guess." Allen grabbed at the place where the white piece came off; it was
white but not quite the same white as the rest of the statue. "I read a report
from London. There was a fire in what turned out to be another safe house for
the KGB. We found that little detail out later, after they found something strange
in the ashes first. Among the debris were a couple of flat pieces of fused wires
with batteries, switch, power cord and a timer on them. Kind of like a bomb
trigger, but not exactly. Nobody could figure out what they were for, but forensics
found some strange kind of electronics in them; a lot more complicated than
for a simple timer circuit." He got hold of another chunk of loose 'stone' and
pulled. "I also heard something about the Soviets doing some experiements for
their space program back when President Kennedy was around. It sounds too weird,
but-" The chunk came off and Allen pulled at another.
All the CIA agents gathered around to look. The hole from the chunk now had
gotten larger and entire leg and hip showed. Allen pulled more of the covering
and one whole side came off. An arm was revealed. The pelvic area and then the
head as he removed more of the thin shell.
Allen stopped and looked at the amazing sight.
The figure he had partially uncovered looked like a statue and felt solid like
a statue. However, the blonde hair under the rubber cap and the wire running
up into the woman's vagina were something you didn't usually find in a normal
statue. She had her eyes closed but held a smile on her chisled features.
"She looks almost alive..."
Allen
careful touched the wire leading up from the pedestal. "True, but this means
the Russians have come up with some sort of suspended animation, or like changing
people into statues. I need to look at the pedestal but she feels like she's
glued to it."
"You three, check the other statues. Start with those over there." The CIA chief
said. "The rest of you, help lower this to the ground." They carefully tilted
the stiff figure and the base so it lay prone on the floor. Underneath, there
was what looked like a trap door or hatch of some sort.
It wasn't long until Allen slid the bottom of pedestal off and looked at the
batteries, electronics, power cord, timer and switch. The only other three statuary
copies from the Embassy were revealed at the same time. One of them had very
little coating at all, but had been painted and detailed to look like stone
just as the others had. He was amazed at the physique on the figure, her sculpted
muscles and smooth curves. If he hadn't been staring directly at her, he would
not have believed such perfection was possible. Allen stepped back and look
at the group of four frozen female figures as a whole. All remained completely
immobile, even without their hard stone coatings, but were undoubtedly real
women. The anatomic details in their unmoving bodies were extensive, and precise.
"I remember her, and her." Another agent said, taking out some dossier photos
and mentally undressing them. "Captain Tatiana something-or-other. A very good
KGB agent. And that one goes by Olga. She's an intelligence specialist, can
steal secrets like a fish drinks water. I know the others, too, but can't put
a name to them."
"And all were camoflaged like statues. What looks like timers have not been
set, luckily, but it seems the Russians have found a new way of getting information
from our conferences." Allen said.
"Oh, boy..." The cheif grumbled. "Washington will want to know about
this right away. It's going come as a big bad surprise for everybody." He looked
at Allen. "And we better get them out of here quick. Pack everything up and
get it to the airbase. I have the air force transport aircraft waiting. And,"
He looked out through the open door. "I need to talk with the local police commander.
In private."
"A message from Athens, Comrade General." The secretary said.
"Good. I want latest report for the operation in Greece." The KGB general took
the message and looked it over. Then he read over it again. He shook his head
and dialed a number he knew by heart, but wished he could forget.
"Yes?"
"Comrade Director, this is General Gomov. I have gotten a disturbing message
from our team in Athens."
"Yes? How are they doing?"
"It appears a fire took place at the safe house where Group Three was hidden.
The KGB team reports that Greek police launched a raid on the house and set
off the bomb trap there. Our agents in their government report that a number
of officers were killed and that the house caught on fire. Everything was destroyed;
the operation is a total loss. Group Three," he paused, "were also lost with
the house."
The director was quiet. "A terrible loss. And a blow to our intelligence arm.
Do we have a replacement special intelligence group ready?"
"Not there. No group can get into Athens in time for conference." The general
said. "A small amount of good news. There is no evidence that those idiot Greeks
suspect anything. Our agents in their police and government report that they
found nothing in what is left of the house. Our agents also report the Americans
suspect nothing of the fire and have believed the Greeks about it being a smuggler's
house. I will order the team in Athens to drop evidence to prove that conclusion."
"A good idea. Make sure you do that. And start getting more special teams in
the field. I want more intelligence from the women as soon as possible."
"Yes sir." The general put the phone down and remembered the women of Group
Three, and the fact they were one statue short of a complete team. Then he took
out the folders from his desk and made some calls.
In a dusty backwater portion of America, an unmarked air force transport aircraft
landed from Greece at a remote airbase. The plane taxied directly into a ancient-looking
hangar and the doors were closed before the engines had even spooled down. From
the cargo area, some crates were secretly unloaded under the careful supervision
of Allen. Then they got into trucks and drove off towards CIA headquarters,
staying on secondary roads. What he had was a prize beyond belief, but also
a puzzle. Could he figure it out in time?
To
be Continued?