Defection Games (Dan Gordon Intelligence Thriller) Read Online Free Page B

intuitive wasn’t his strong suit. “The point, from our perspective, was that it was important to make sure that you were going to meet an imposter. From their perspective, if we sent a welcome party to Armenia, it could serve as proof that we had engaged Tango, and they would make us look like a bunch of idiots whom future potential defectors cannot trust."
    Ha! Eric had just confirmed, with a straight face, that before I’d left for Armenia he’d known that I would be a sitting duck. My rage was brewing inside, but I kept quiet, for now. Future eruption expected.
    In the intelligence world, ‘incompetent’ is a dangerous label. People cooperating with you rely on your competence to keep the relationship secret and to exfiltrate an asset at a time of distress. If the Mossad or the CIA were exposed as unprofessional and nincompoops, it’d further diminish potential assets’ willingness to do business with them, in a business where the life span of operators isn’t very long as it is.
    “OK,” I said trying to digest all this and appear calm, “what do we do now, or rather what do you want me to do?”
    “We want you to go to Iran, meet Tango through the Kurds who are sheltering him, and extricate him to freedom. You'll get your instructions soon.” Three minutes later the meeting ended, leaving me baffled.
    Back in my New York office, I read the encrypted memo that Benny had just sent to me and the other team members:
    “The following is our report regarding the failed attempt to extricate Tango. As per our earlier post operation estimate, VEVAK got a double to pose as Tango and sent him through the route that Mossad/CIA designated.  We now have his name: Parviz Farrokhzād, a drug smuggler with some military experience [to account for military bearing] and a physical appearance similar to Tango’s. VEVAK caused his release from prison three months before his prison term was up. Parviz was released with $2 in his pocket. Outside the prison, a VEVAK agent posing as a drug dealer approached Parviz and made him an offer: to cross the border into Armenia with a smuggled 5 Kg of Heroin. Payment for the job: $25,000 when he completes the mission, in addition to the $5,000 the agent gave him. Since Parviz had only $2, and these amounts are substantial in Iran, he didn’t need much persuasion. He was told that cooperative border control soldiers could be shooting, not at him but into the air to justify their inability to stop him. They were paid as well. His leg was injured during the exchange of fire and he hid in a small cave. Armenian Police were patrolling the area and found him. Parviz is now in Armenian custody.  We were allowed to interrogate him.”
    I called Eric on a secure phone. “How do we know that the man in the Armenian prison isn’t Tango after all?”
    “Our liaison on Benny’s team participated in the interrogation; took his fingerprints; and sent them to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center in Clarksburg, West Virginia. They ran it against their database. This includes fingerprints that Benny’s ‘City sewer inspectors’ lifted when they met Tango in his house. The man in the Armenian prison is not Tango. Therefore, the provisional identification of Benny’s men, that he is probably an Iranian drug dealer with a criminal past and a grim future, could be accurate.”
    “So the question remains, is the person held by the Kurds in the safe apartment Tango, or just another decoy?” I asked.
    "You’ll be dispatched once we have a good answer to that question,” said Eric.
    III
    October 2006, Manhattan
    The Iranian-defector whirlwind had all started when an encrypted message arrived at my office in midtown Manhattan. “Dan, read file 2004-1197 and prepare for an operational meeting later on this week. Eric.”
    With the overflow of intelligence reports, sometimes it’s difficult to ascertain what’s important and reliable and what isn’t. So it’s often difficult answering