“So, all this has to happen on a Sunday?”
“Sunday afternoon.”
“Afternoon.”
She opened another book and read, then looked at Bolling. "How do we get him out of Russia? The security is tighter than a banker's ass."
"According to Geneva, they can't search diplomats or their vehicles. Pop him in the trunk, I suppose."
"Like the KGB are worried about the Geneva Convention. Don’t be ridiculous.”
"You think?"
"Well, let's put the border down as a variable. I don't think we can guarantee either way at the border."
"But we can stack the odds. What if we cross the border when they're swamped? Maybe they get too busy to search everyone's trunk. We need research on when and why this might happen."
They broke off their talk and went their separate ways. Bolling made some calls and got MI6 Moscow on the ground to check things out. He ran their spies to find Nikolai's path to freedom.
She called Bolling on a secure line two weeks after their meeting.
"The most heavily traveled international border in the Soviet Union is located in Tallinn in Estonia. An enormous amount of commercial traffic passes through that seaport. As well as an enormous amount of private traffic—automobiles, buses, military vehicles."
"Go on."
"I still think if we get him across that channel on a Sunday afternoon when it’s hectic, he's a free man."
Bolling had a reservation about that. "Not necessarily. The Finns are terrified of the Soviets. They might turn a fugitive back to Russia if they find out Moscow wants him. No, he'll have to get out of Finland before he's safe."
"I'll add on. I'll be back."
She studied the Tallinn seaport. It was a two-day drive from Moscow, allowing breaks along the way and a night of sleep. Western diplomats frequently visited the port both for its access to the sea and proximity to Helsinki. This included diplomats from Moscow, passing into Finland as diplomats might.
She called Bolling again. "Getting a man from Moscow to Tallinn in an embassy car is impossible. He will have to get there on his own. Perhaps the train, it goes to Leningrad, then to Tallinn.”
“They’ll be swarming the Tallinn train station. That’s a no.”
"Then he goes to Leningrad by train and takes a bus to Tallinn. That's one way."
Bolling had his reservation. "What about the KGB? They follow us everywhere."
"Your man is KGB. The world's best dry-cleaners."
"He has to get away on his own. They don't know where he's gone. He heads for the train to Leningrad and sneaks on board."
"Then the bus to Tallinn. Anonymous and fast."
"So he arrives at the ferry, the border. What happens there?"
"No, he meets MI6 officers outside of Tallinn, someplace easy to find. He gets in the trunk of their car."
"And his daughter gets in with him. Problems with the kid being quiet, but there are ways for that, even."
"Drugs."
"I didn't say that, but yes, a mild tranquilizer for Sasha."
"One problem right off the bat," Emma said. "The embassy cars they're driving to Tallinn… KGB mechanics service those. Bugged stem to stern."
"Easy. They don't talk in the car. They play opera on the radio. No KGB officer wants to listen to opera all that time on the drive over."
She laughed. "Maybe not."
"Still, the MI6 officers will be followed by the KGB. How do they shake them so they can pick up Nikolai and Sasha?"
"That's the most difficult part of the equation. I haven't solved that yet."
"Nor I."
Getting human cargo to the Tallinn port in an embassy car was next to impossible because the KGB had officers assigned to watch all vehicles. Any British embassy worker attempting to leave Russia was stopped, his documents examined, his reason for the trip written down, and his trip delayed long enough for the KGB vehicles to fall in behind.
Magnuson spent a solid week teasing out answers. But in the end, she framed a plan because MI6 had promised a plan to Nikolai and the Prime Minister. First, Nikolai would somehow need to let MI6 know he needed out. Second, he needed to get to a rendezvous point his own best way. The rendezvous would be near the Tallinn seaport. He would have to get there without being followed. Third, a diplomatic car driven by an MI6 officer would have to escape KGB followers and reach the rendezvous point alone. Nikolai and Sasha would then have to hide in the diplomatic vehicle. Fourth, the Russian Border Guard, swamped as they were at the border, would have to forego searching. Then, if all these things could happen on the same day, he might escape by ferry to Finland. But only on a late Sunday afternoon.
She was tearing her hair out by the time she was done.
But it was the best she could offer. She revised her percentage-of-success estimate with the Prime Minister downward. Five percent. It was the best she could offer.
Still, it was all they had. Emma Magnuson's plan activated as TINKER.
MI6 Moscow undertook to find a rendezvous point near the Tallinn seaport. The rendezvous had to be easily accessible from the main road and discreet for the pickup to occur unobserved. Moscow MI6 asked how Nikolai would reach the point in the first place? The answer came back from Magnuson: Nikolai would have to get himself there.
The MI6 station chief drove to Tallinn from Moscow and made his notes and took his photographs as he traveled the road. At a church down a side street, he found what he was looking for and pulled over. More pictures, more examination of the area, visualization of his parked car from the roadway. The church could not be a weak point in the plan. There were enough weak points already. He was also taking into account the militia posts every twenty kilometers, as were on all Soviet roads. The GAI posts monitored all traffic, assigning arrival times at each post, and estimated arrival times at the next post. All traffic was monitored, and if the flow was interrupted, KGB cars were dispatched to investigate. So, Nikolai's rendezvous and pickup would have to be accomplished in less than a minute to avoid KGB investigators on four wheels.
TINKER included an exchange of signals between Nikolai and MI6. His signal would set TINKER into action.
She decided Nikolai's signal to the MI6 watchers should happen inside some building or structure when pedestrian traffic thinned. She began with Red Square and immediately saw her target, Saint Basil's Cathedral.
She searched MI6's graphics and design department in London and found the cathedral's interior layout and plans. She made calls from payphones to tourist guides and even Moscow hotels to establish when the cathedral would be open and closed and days of the week. She studied the interior layout. Built around the 156-foot high central nave were nine small, separate chapels aligned to points on the compass, four were raised to designate their position between heaven and earth. The chapels were dedicated to the Protecting Veil of Mary.
The ninth chapel honored Saint Basil. It was somewhat remote from the others, and it was usually dark in that area.
It was this chapel where Magnuson laid her plan. The signal would consist of a votive candle placed at the feet of the statue of the Virgin.
Then she had second doubts. What if cleaning crews spied the votive and removed it in the act of cleaning? But then she studied the floor plan, and a more reliable signal came to her. On the priest's podium at the front of the chapel would be a bible. Nikolai would signal for help by placing a hymnal beneath that bible. When he was in Moscow, the chapel would be checked twice a day by MI6. If the hymnal was so positioned, the plan would be activated.