smiled and tapped the file resting on the table in front of him.
“Exactly. By using this,” he said. He picked up the file and let the assembly see it. “We activate Black Judas and put it into operation. It is the right time. America is vulnerable at this moment. The dollar is weak. Hit the U.S. financial base now and we can throw the economy into recession. Use the skills of the Black Judas team to bring America to her knees, then take advantage of that weakness to gain control of the financial markets.”
“You make it sound too easy,” Bella said.
“It won’t be easy, but the rewards could be incredible.”
Bella nodded. “That is the part I am interested in. If it works.”
“The team we put in place will make sure it works. The day the project goes into operation, the knowledge these men will have gained becomes vital.”
“You are talking about individuals who have been in place for almost seven years,” Bella said. “How do we know they have stayed loyal? Or were matters like this not included in your master plan?”
“All those things and more were considered, Georgi. An operation such as Black Judas required much planning. Fail-safes were built in. Six men. Three teams of two. We spread them across the American continent. Each team carried codes that would allow it to access Black Judas and bring it online. In reality all we needed were two men to survive. Each one carrying one half of the access code. Their codes will be combined and Black Judas brought online.”
Bella nodded. “And have you had these men watched? Are they all still alive?”
“Yes. We have a man in place, a handler responsible for an American turncoat. He also oversees the Black Judas people from a discreet distance. Since they became model U.S. citizens, they have kept up with technology advances and are highly proficient with all forms of computer skills. Probably to such a degree they could walk into any IT environment and make the staff look like kindergarten underachievers.”
“And once this project is activated,” Bella persisted, “what do we achieve?”
“Hopefully great things as far as we are concerned—crippling and widespread breakdowns within the U.S. financial world, meltdown of their administrative databases. For example, their welfare program would crash. Cash benefits that are paid to applicants would vanish. Bank accounts would disappear from computer systems. Even federal accounts would be affected. On Wall Street a virus would engage and spread throughout the entire system, wiping out transactions and losing monies and stock details.
“Our programmers have been upgrading and inserting current data into the Black Judas core for months. Even as we speak they are feeding in even more information, all collected via our own systems, which are extremely versatile. Our team is constantly checking American systems, preparing the way for the day we give the go-ahead. They are permanently monitoring the safeguards and backups that the American institutions maintain to protect their financial world. Taken to the next level, we could conceivably hack into their utility companies and put them out of action. We could turn off America’s lights and plunge it into darkness.”
“How soon will Black Judas become active?”
“Within the next few weeks,” Krushen said. “Final protocols are being written as we speak. Once these have been fed into the core, the project will become viable. Within days of the activation codes being sent out, Black Judas will go online.”
What Krushen did not relay to the committee was the information that had reached him from America that there was some kind of operation taking place aimed at dislodging the sleepers. He had the feeling it had something to do with Karl Federov, but until he could prove it he preferred to keep the details to himself. There were incidents that had taken place that concerned Krushen because they involved Black Judas. He had used his power and influence to keep them under wraps, not wanting to alarm anyone. Some members of the committee might panic if they were brought into the picture. Krushen found it easier to simply deal with the matters and say nothing to anyone who did not need to know.
KARL FEDEROV STOOD at the window, his hands thrust deep in the pockets of his thick overcoat. The concrete apron was awash with rain, a chill wind blowing it in rippling waves across the area. The airstrip had once been a Russian air-force base. It had been home to a squadron of SU-27 fighter planes, each armed with a GSh-30-1 cannon and carrying AA R27 missiles. This base had been one of many that encircled Moscow. Now, like many others, it had been closed because of rising costs and military cutbacks. All, Federov thought with some bitterness, in the name of democracy and freedom. He almost laughed out loud at the falsity of the words.
Freedom.
Democracy.
That foolishness was responsible for the breakup of the Soviet Empire and the emasculating of its powerful military might. The Russia he once knew had become another nation ruled by greed and hypocrisy and all the depravity that could grip a nation. Looking deeper, he could see that little had really changed within the isolated corridors of power. Those in control became stronger and increasingly wealthy. The never-ending struggles to stay in positions of power still existed. Those who had reached the higher levels were constantly having to fight off the ambitions of challengers. Mistrust, divided loyalties, plots and counterplots were the order of the day. It was the time of the wolf, a time when each individual had to ensure his own life and expectations were considered above everything else.
Karl Federov was one of those individuals and had already realized the potential riches Black Judas offered to someone willing to reach out and take an offered opportunity. The potential wealth to be gained by utilizing the Black Judas project would be staggering.
Alekzander Mishkin, Federov’s boss, was no exception. The Security Directorate minister had ambitious plans of his own. He was not content remaining in his current position. Mishkin wanted to rise, to attain greater stature. His ministerial appointment had empowered him with wide-reaching authority. It was that authority and the ability to access restricted information that had resulted in Federov discovering the Black Judas file.
Federov had unearthed the secret of the project by sheer good luck. He had been going through old files, long forgotten in one of the basement storage sections in Lubyanka. He had almost passed over the sealed document file. Ready to put it aside, he had paused, something about the package rousing his interest, especially when he saw that it had been filed incorrectly and the stamp on the flap of the cover indicated it had been designated as ultrasensitive. Federov laid the file on the desk, aware that he had discovered something special. When he broke the seal and opened the file and saw the Black Judas legend on the first sheet, he knew he had found something special.
His first thoughts were concerned with how and why the file had been misplaced, but he dismissed the reasoning. Important files had been lost before, mistakenly shelved by some harassed, overworked documents clerk, moved around within the bulk of other files until it became forgotten. The staggering number of files held within Lubyanka’s vaults, the bulk still typewritten and photocopied in the old-fashioned way of the ponderous machine that was the state security system, left itself open to mistakes.
Federov spent the next hour going through the stack of documents and photographs. He quickly realized he had before him the entire Black Judas project, from the overseers to the actual operatives who would be living their manufactured lives in America. The six-man sleeper team, awaiting the day when the call would come to activate the operation. Federov was not a man given to excitable expressions. By the time he realized the potential of the documents in front of him, his head was swimming with almost childish delight and he had a smile on his
