Page 75 of Cry Havoc
Hanoi, North Vietnam
MAJOR KIRILL DVORNIKOV SATin the uncomfortable chair in the cramped office that was the GRU liaison office to the Viet Minh Ministry of Defense Intelligence Department in Hanoi, a lone fan in the corner in a losing battle against the midday heat.
He couldn’t wait to get back to his room at the Grand Métropole Hotel. It was the closest one could get to Paris in this part of the world. He would prove his worth to the GRU leadership, and his next assignment would find him back in the City of Light where he belonged.
The liaison office was situated near the top floor to be closer to the array of antennas on the roof that made secure communications with Moscow possible. They would need to expand their footprint if the hardware from the USSPuebloand the keying material from the NSA proved useful in decrypting U.S. military communications captured by Soviet trawlers collecting signals intelligence in the South China Sea. They would also need to acquire a new building.
Though the Ministry of Defense Intelligence Department was headquartered in an innocuous five-story apartment building in downtown Hanoi, the antennas on the roof were a dead giveaway that it was not whatit seemed. The hospital next door provided some semblance of protection, as an errant bomb wiping out the children’s ward of a hospital was not something the Americans were keen to see splashed across the front pages.
The intelligence services of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam consisted of the Viet Minh Ministry of Defense Intelligence Department and the Public Services Directorate. Dvornikov found it ironic that they had both been established by Vietnamese who had received their training from British and American intelligence operatives during the Great Patriotic War. It was also interesting that they still taught courses based on the lessons imparted by a Japanese intelligence official who joined the Viet Minh after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Voronin had swept the room for listening devices, though one could never be sure these days. He now stood just offset from the window observing the street below. Dvornikov liked that his Vietnamese counterparts were visibly uneasy around the Spetsnaz man. They had heard the rumors. They also knew that he had been held in a buried concrete box at the notorious Ministry of National Defense Prison. Voronin looked at all of them as if, given the opportunity, he would slit their throats, which of course he would. Dvornikov used this unease to his advantage. The NVA officials assigned to the GRU liaison office kept their distance.
He unfastened another button on his thin tan shirt in the hopes of letting out more body heat as he waited for Director Lavrinenko. It had been over an hour. The tardiness was not unexpected. In the GRU, one worked on the director’s schedule. Perhaps it was an intentional delay to remind the major of just that fact.
The director had to take the call in the GRU communications room. That the large man had to leave his desk and caviar pleased Dvornikov. He could picture GRU officers stepping to the sides of the hallways averting eye contact as he barreled past. Penkovsky would most certainly be in tow, continuing his grooming for the top job.
Dvornikov glanced at the encrypted radio for the third time in five minutes and was glad to see the battery was still charged. Codenamed Shmel, the damned thing required hours of cranking on the power generator to operate effectively. Even then, it would only supply minutes of operation. Luckily, the major had his Spetsnaz comrade to do the menial labor. The small generator was now secured inside the carrying case along with a spare parts kit and a small black Bakelite box that included four additional rechargeable batteries. There was no guarantee of time or consistent power for the cable-based charger, and lugging around backups was far preferable to languishing away on the hand crank.
At least here we don’t have to set the antenna.
The R-354 radio was issued with a long wire antenna, which in the field would be deployed by lobbing it and its attached fishing line and weight into the highest tree branches. Here, they were able to tie into the relays and antennas on the roof.
The radio’s control panel was broken down into four sections: receiver, transmitter, antenna, and burst transmitter. Dvornikov would constantly monitor the settings during transmission and adjust as necessary. Everything from solar flares to battery issues to faulty antennas to equipment malfunctions could disrupt comms both on Dvornikov’s side and on Moscow’s.
It was essential to transmit the most critical information in the first message. Anticipating Moscow’s questions and answering them in the initial burst transmission was the most efficient way to communicate and limit the time Dvornikov would spend on responses. While the first would be prepared using the puncher, follow-up messages during the communication window would be hand-punched into the encoder’s built-in burst keypad. The machine was only able to send roughly 250 groups, which translated to 1,250 characters per minute, which was extremely time consuming. Therefore, it was imperative to keep communicationsas short as possible. Also, the longer a message, the higher the chances of interception. It was a delicate balance between sharing vital information and remaining economical.
Though secure, sending a message via the Shmel was not the quickest of tasks. Earlier in the day, Dvornikov had prepared the initial message, cutting a length of standard 35mm film he purchased at the corner store in half. He had then used the handheld punching device included in the radio’s field kit to stamp his carefully crafted message into the split film.
A tone through the unit headset indicated that Moscow was ready to receive.
About time.
Dvornikov fed the film into the slit above the machine’s manual keypad and hit transmit, the tape feeding through the machine like a film projector.
Plans for offensive secure / Source reports Col Phuc Tran killed before interrogation in Saigon / Not broken at Phu Bai or Da Nang / Source highly placed / Information verified under sedation
A tone came back through the headset indicating the transmission was successful.
Dvornikov fed his second preprepared message into the radio and pressed the transmit button.
Two MACV-SOG operators—last names Quinn and Reece—escorting Colonel Trân when eliminated / Convinced there is a spy embedded in Saigon / Concerned they will discover source / Source is most highly placed asset in Saigon / Currently at CIA safe house / Request permission to divert team during Tet and eliminate the problem
Dvornikov received a positive tone through his headset and waited for a response to his query. It was relayed via an encrypted burst transmission of Morse code. Dvornikov wrote out the reply in long hand.
Approved. Following Tet, expect surge of SOG operations into Laos, Cambodia, DRV. U.S. SOG communications decryption and capture plan is a go. HQ—Out.
Dvornikov exercised restraint on inquiring as to his next assignment. It was premature to press. He knew what he had to do if he was to walk the streets of Paris again.
“Sergeant Voronin.”
“Yes, Major.”
“The sapper team in Saigon. What is their mission during Tet?”
“The embassy, but they are part of a multiple element attack.”
“How would we divert one to a new location?”
