The three Arabs were tied securely and still unconscious, the combination of the vodka and the hit on the head kept them asleep in their web seats. Vicky climbed back into the cockpit, put her headset back on, pressed the intercom button and told Kurt that the men were still sleeping peacefully. She handed the automatic back to him and said, “I didn’t get the chance to thank you for saving my life. I am very grateful.” She put her hand out to shake Kurt’s hand. Kurt turned partially around and clasped her hand and smiled warmly.
“You are more than welcome, Vicky. I’m glad we were able to take you with us.” Kurt turned back to the windscreen because he could not take his eyes from it for more than a few seconds. Between scanning the radar and looking forward for visual sighting, and monitoring the gauges, it kept him very busy. Fortunately, the storm closing in behind them was a small one and now they were heading away from it. The full moon gave him a lot of help to pick out the mountains from the dark sky.
“Will you be taking me to America with you? I don’t know where else I could go. I don’t know anyone outside of Russia.”
“Yes we will, Vicky. It’s for certain that you can’t go back to Russia again. You need a chance at a new life after all you’ve been through. Mary told me what happened and I am very sorry you were subjected to that kind of brutality. We have some friends in our country that can help you get started on building a new life for yourself. I think you’ll like America, Vicky.”
Colonel Tamkorski was waiting at the headquarters building when Boshnikoff arrived. “You need to get to the infirmary, Igor. That wound looks pretty bad.”
“The sergeant put a bandage on it. The bullet passed through completely. It is a little painful, but I will survive.”
“If you will not go to the infirmary, I will have a doctor sent here to attend to that wound. I don’t want you to get an infection and lose your leg.”
“Thank you for your concern, Colonel. I must get on the telephone to Colonel Vashti. I need him to go to General Balkon to get our fighters in the air to intercept that C-130 that took off a while ago. I believe the Iranians are the ones who took our prisoner out of here.”
“What makes you think it was the Iranians and how could they have known she was here at the Cosmodrome?”
“There must be a mole in the Ordzhonikdze Aviation Institute. Mikhail Dubikoff will have to answer for that one. It is the only possible explanation. The plane that just took off was Iranian and our Miss Tishinsky is on board, I am certain of it. The pilot took three shots at us. I can’t believe how lucky the bastard was. He just stuck a gun out his side window and fired off three quick rounds. I tried to get them to cut their engines and stop on the taxiway so I could inspect their aircraft, but when I got their attention with the spotlight and made the signal to cut the engines, the pilot took the shots at me. I couldn’t see his face because I was out beyond the wing tip. When I pulled my weapon to shoot at the cockpit, the bastard accelerated the plane and my driver panicked and tried to catch up with him. That driver is dead with a bullet through his skull. There could be only one reason for him to shoot and that is because they were part of getting our prisoner out of here. The Ayatollah was probably behind the whole thing. He’s not satisfied with buying arms from us; he wants to build his own weapons with information he can steal from us.”
Colonel Tamkorski said, “Did Captain Polynaka tell you how many were involved in the rescue of Victoria Tishinsky?”
“Captain Polynaka is dead. Killed with what appears to have been a saber. The Iranians love sabers. Two more officers were killed with him. We have no way of knowing how many there were, but I am told that it must have been at least five men. That Iranian C-130 had three men on it. Who knows, there may have been more men hidden amongst the cargo that slipped out during the unloading. They took the armored personnel carrier and went straight to the flight line where the C-130 was parked after the breakout. It must have been the Iranians!”
Just then, an aid came into the office and said, “Colonel Tamkorski, we have received an international distress signal from the Iranian C-130. It has reported that it was going down about 100 miles from here in the mountains. We can’t send out helicopters to investigate until daybreak because of a storm that is passing through the area. The aircraft went off the radar just after the distress call, Colonel.”
Boshnikoff said, “That’s exactly what they want us to think. They didn’t go down at all. It is just a ploy to put us off track. They think we will wait until daybreak to look for wreckage. They are turning and going in another direction so we will not be able to catch them. They want us to look in the wrong area, I am certain of it! I must get fighters up to find them right away, Colonel!”
“You may use my telephone, Igor.”
“Thank you Colonel. I must not waste time in getting to Colonel Vashti.” Boshnikoff picked up the telephone and instructed the base operator to call Colonel Vashti in Moscow.
1:30 a.m. Thursday morning, September 20, 1984, somewhere between the Russian mountains southeast of Novgorod at an altitude of 500 feet at 150 miles per hour-
Stillwell said, “Mary, I have to get in touch with Bob Riddle at the NSA headquarters in Langley. It’s about 5:30 p.m. last night over there right now. We’re about eight hours ahead of them. Before I do that, I have to teach you that code right now.”
“There are two kinds of codes that are unbreakable. The first is very simple but fallible. Two agents have the same novel in their possession. You use the novel to give words for your message. First you give the page number of the novel and follow that with the number of the word on the page. The words on each page are counted from left to right, top to bottom. You could only break that code if you knew what novel the two people were using. The fallibility is that if one person is caught with the novel, the code could be broken. The second unbreakable code is one I developed in Vietnam. Up until now, only two people