So, he might have been a 5, but there were other considerations. He hadn’t seen Alinsky’s rank on the paper, but now he kicked himself for his boldness, hoping he hadn’t raised suspicions. Which, it went without saying, he had. Suspicions were always in the air. There was no reason why he shouldn’t be the subject of one of those now.
Still, he thought of the war plans, and he thought of the miniature British cameras. What an incredible score it would be. Just for five minutes alone.
But he didn’t dare bring a British spy camera into the embassy.
Did he?
26
It was time to test document turnover, Nikolai to MI5. Nikolai couldn't wait to begin. At lunchtime, he slipped into his sports coat. He surreptitiously located a fabric shop, and the clerk found a leftover piece of dark fabric, the size of a schoolboy's pad of paper. He painstakingly sewed the material into his jacket's right inner side and tried it out in front of his bathroom mirror. He found he could easily hide The Sunday Times inside the pocket without creating a visible bulge.
Nikolai gathered the papers from his desk, station-wide directives from Moscow station. Included were top-secret documents he had checked out. As he stuffed the papers into his inner pocket, a bead of sweat broke out across his forehead. He swiped the sleeve of his coat across the sweat and took ten deep breaths. He told himself he wasn't going to panic.
There was no check-in/check-out protocol in London like at Moscow station, where officers were patted down and searched as they came and went. KGB officers were loyal and raised almost since childhood to never betray the service. So, Nikolai was able to take the elevator down to the lobby and walk right out to the parking lot that first day. At the safe house on Bayswater, Bolling ran the documents through a Xerox machine in ten minutes while Nikolai ate a cold steak sandwich. He then stuffed the documents back into his pocket and left without a word in case KGB bugged the house between meetings. It was swept daily for bugs, but Nikolai preferred the silent approach, nonetheless.
In the weeks and months that followed, Nikolai left KGB London at various times of the day with top-secret KGB documents hidden in his coat. Sometimes the meetings with Franklin Bolling took place only blocks away from KGB London, at a particular office supply store, and its copier used for a small price. Or sometimes at the safe house itself. It didn't matter where; the documents flooded MI5 right away.
A half-dozen senior MI5 officers gathered in River House in London to discuss Nikolai's top-secret files. They didn't know the spy's identity, but they were stunned with the top-secret information.
For the most part, Nikolai's months of debriefing served to prove to MI5 and the Prime Minister, who was now listening in on ULYSSES, that the KGB wasn't a vast flotilla of thousands of agents scattered around London spying. Rather, the KGB was much less than it had once been, especially since the British had expelled so many of its members.
27
Anatoly Anchev was dining out with friends, enjoying laughter and lively conversation followed by coffee.
Anchev requested the bill. It arrived in a plastic binder, which Anchev flipped open. But there was more than the dinner bill inside. The binder also contained a white envelope. Anchev was enough of a spy to know it could not be opened there in front of his guests, so he slipped it into an inside pocket. But the envelope had electrified him: the return address was K, an alternate name for MI5.
When he returned home that night, Anchev tore off his jacket and sliced open the envelope. It contained an MI5 document marked TOP SECRET. Anchev began reading. What he found was that he'd been given the MI5 brief for expelling Mila Petrova and the two GRU men, including details on how MI5 had identified all three as Soviet spies. Anchev's pulse quickened as he read on. The sender offered to provide more secrets. He gave Anchev detailed instructions on how to contact him. It was signed Lana.
Lana was obviously a code name meant to keep his real name unknown—maybe forever, maybe only until trust was earned. Lana said he wanted to spy for the KGB deep inside British home intelligence, MI5.
Anchev fixed a strong vodka and sat down on his couch with his stockinged feet on the coffee table. The letter from Lana lay beside him on the cushion. He knew his political capital inside the KGB was about to soar.
Now to decide how it would best elevate him up the ladder.
First, however, came the response to Lana.
He locked his door and mixed a second drink and turned off all the lights. He returned to the couch, took a swallow, and shut his eyes.
After several hours of reflection, his spirits had soared over the Lana letter then plummeted just as quickly. It required more consideration. The message might be a KGB dangle intended to lure him and see if he might cooperate with a British spy.
He mixed another drink, vodka and ice.
On the other hand, what if the letter was real?
The specificity of the document's instructions turned his head. Anchev would need to indicate his willingness to meet with Lana by putting a single thumbtack into the side of the Arrivals and Departures sign at the Buckingham Underground station. Anchev knew it well. He felt safe enough so far. Lana would then deliver a canister of film to Anchev's post office box in Wembley under the name of Reginald Riverdale, two names taken from a popular comic book series in America. Anchev couldn't begin to conceive how the spy knew about the phony postal box he kept for illegals to reach him. It could only be MI5. It had to be real.
Upon reading the document yet again, Anchev concluded he had nothing to lose. All the way through, he would be acting as any KGB officer should act given the circumstances. A chance to parlay an approach by an MI5 operative? Who at KGB London could ever blame him for jumping at the opportunity? He first thought of sending Nikolai or one of the other senior officers, but then thought better of it. If there were successes ahead, they wouldn't be shared.
Then Anchev weakened and decided against leaving a thumbtack. There was too much risk to his career—even his life—if it went awry.
Two weeks passed, and a second offering arrived in Anchev's home mailbox after failing to pin the thumbtack. Lana wasn't fooling around, said Lana. This time, there were two photocopied pages. Anchev was stunned. The secrets they contained were verifiable.
He needed a second judgment, someone whose opinion he trusted. Anchev called Nikolai into his office, closed the door, locked it, and asked, "Would you like to see something out of this world?"
"Certainly."
Anchev pushed the two photocopied pages across the desk.
"My God! What are these names?”
"All of our officers in London who are double-agents working for the British. He knows them all!"
Nikolai scanned down the list. It included all known KGB agents working for the British as double agents. He scanned almost to the bottom before coming to his name—ULYSSES. He saw ULYSSES graded as "more or less identifiable." It was enough to get him shot should his real identity ever be teased out. "More or less identifiable." What the hell did that mean? Lana undeniably had accessed top secrets. But ULYSSES remained one step removed. He shuddered inside.
He handed back the document. "Is it accurate? Those are KGB officers spying for the British?"
"Yes," said Anchev. "They've done well."