THE SPIDER’S WEB Ch 3

CHAPTER THREE – MOSCOW, RUSSIA

By Bob French

Bramavitch, a cypher clerk in the SVR, The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, stood, then read the message pad again.  “Tell Nikoli I have an urgent message for the Comrade Director,” and with that, he left the basement of the Kremlin and hurried upstairs.

            Nikki, the PA to the Director of the Cyber Intelligence Unit, smiled at him as he hurried into her office.

            “I must speak to Comrade Director straight away.”  

            Nikki looked up at him.  “And what is so important that it will interrupt Comrade Director’s first cup of coffee of the day?” 

            “Intercepted telex from the CIA.”  Seeing the seriousness on his face, she stood, straightened her skirt and moved towards the Director’s solid oak door.  Bramavitch felt his heart pound as his eye followed the curves of her skirt as she vanished through the door. Seconds later the door eased open and he heard the gruff voice of the Director.  “Come”

            “Sorry to bother you Sir, but we intercepted an exchange of messages from the CIA cell in Beijing to Langley.”  The Director put out his hand and snatched them away from Bramavitch.

            “Mmm.  You have done well.  If you have any other messages relating to this in future, please let me have them immediately.  On the way out tell Nikki I want to see her.”

            An hour later Nikki had convened a meeting in the conference room next door between the Economics unit, the men from Odinstovo, the Military Chemical Research unit, west of Moscow, the Director of the State Medical Authorities, the Deputy Director of the SVR and the Section Chief of Section 7, the liquidators.

            As the Director sat down, Bramavitch hurried into the conference room and handed his Director a couple more messages.  He spent a minute reading them out, then looked up.

            “These comrades.”  He waived the handful of messages in his hand.  “Could be just the thing we have been waiting for to bring down the West for good. The first message is from the CIA in Beijing informing Langley that they are aware of a new virus that look like it is out of control.  It would seem that the Chinese have failed to clean up after themselves again. The second, is from our operative in Beijing explaining that they have traced the source of this virus.”  He paused to re-read the telex.  “It would appear that a Triad War Lord claims that during the transportation of the contaminated ‘wet meats’, his men took control of it.  It goes onto say that, using scientists he has created a virus that will wipe out half the world.”  The room was filled with laughter until the Director held up his hand.  “And, that his scientists have also created a vaccine for it.”  The room fell silent as he took out the last message.

             “Lastly, an intercepted message passed to us from Bern.  A French agent of the DGSE states that he attended a covert meeting of the Climate Change Initiative, a gathering of well-doers trying to save the world from destruction.  At this meeting, he witnessed the Chinese and Korean delegates negotiating something.  He followed them to a restaurant in the evening and taped their conversation.  During this meeting, the restaurant was attacked and an assassin killed the Chinese delegate and stole the tape machine.”  The Director glanced at the Section Chief of Section 7.

            “No Director, it was not one of our missions.”  The Director nodded and glanced back at the telex.

            “It goes on that the French agent chased down the assassin, killed her and recovered the tape.   Copies of it are probable in every European Intelligence Headquarters by now.”

            The Section Chief caught the Director’s eye.  “Does it say anything about the assassin’s nationality, description, any form of ID?”

            The Director shook his head in silence, then stood.  “I want you all to work together on this.  I want to know what that meeting was about, what was discussed at this restaurant, who these Triad scum are and where their scientists are working from.  I want to know if there are any weaknesses of the west that we can use this virus to bring them down, politically, militarily or economically… everything, and more importantly I want to know the effectiveness of this virus and can it be controlled.  I want a coordinated brief on my desk by one o’clock on Friday.”  He paused.  “Gentlemen, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to destroy the west, so do not let me down.”  As he went to leave, the man from the Economics Unit stood and discretely moved towards him.

            “Sir.  The meeting at Le Richemond Hotel in Geneva which the French agent talks about.  It was the first gathering of those countries who asked us to ensure that their parties got into power by fixing their voting system.”  The Director stopped and stared down at the man.

            “Go on.”

            As far as I can understand Sir, nearly all the delegates were from nations that have a bent towards CCI, Climate Change Initiative; France, the Europe Ecology, Germany the Alliance 90 Party, Greece the Ecologist Green Party….”

            “Yes, I get it. But what does it mean?”

            “Well Sir, If I was attending this CCI convention, and I wanted to balance the power between nature and mankind in a bid to save the world, this virus would be the perfect weapon.”  The Director stood staring down at the man from the Economics Unit for a silent minute, then nodded slowly.  “Come with me.”

            As the Director moved towards his office, he turned to the Deputy Director of the SVR and invited him to join them.  Nikki had already prepared coffee and vodka for them as they came through the door.

            Before they touched their coffee the Deputy Director of the SVR spoke.  “This is good news, Petrovich.”  He had known Petrovich Malenkov since they were fledgeling KGB officers in East Berlin back in the old days. “If you can use this virus to bring down the west, it will give us an advantage we badly need.”  The three men talked for over an hour, then parted.  The man from the Economic Units was left in no doubt that if he got this right, he would gain promotion.

            Director Petrovich Malenkov studied the coordinated brief for several hours, then asked Nikki to arrange a meeting with the Comrade Director of the SVR.

            He was met by a short, serious-looking grey-haired woman, and told to sit in the chair and wait until the Director of the SVR was ready for him.  She reminded him of Colonel Clegg, a KGB operative in a western spy film a long time ago, and smiled.

            The buzzer on Colonel Clegg’s desk shattered the silence and he was ushered into a huge office.  The Director nodded him to the conference table.

            “So Petrovich, what brings you to the top floor this late hour on a Friday night?”

            Malenkov went through his brief, passing the various messages to the Director as he spoke.

            “It is my considered opinion that if we can take control of this latest virus and control its release Comrade Director, we can bring down all aspects of the west.”

            He watched as the Director’s mind started to analyse what he’d just heard, then nodded. 

            “Explain.”

            “If we can take control of this virus and its vaccine we can hold any nation to ransom.  Those who do not show an interest will suffer.  There will be mass unemployment, the economy of these countries will spiral out of control as governments try to keep control, all imports and exports throughout the world will cease, compounding the hardship. Travel by ship and aircraft will stop in an attempt to stop the spread, causing these large companies to crumble, and, more importantly, when the world’s stock markets tumble and sellers unload their worthless stock, we shall buy them up.”  He paused to take a sip of his coffee.

            “Most importantly Comrade, our oil pipelines to Europe must remain open whilst those of America and Saudi Arabian oil producers will either stop or if they can’t, then they will want to store their oil.  We must be prepared to offer our oil, through a third party, or to store it for them.  This will give us more power over their economies and manufacturing capabilities in the future.”

            The Director looked at Petrovich Malenkov and smiled.  Have you set in motion any plans yet?

            “As we speak, a senior operative from Section 7, is on her way to Beijing to join a small team already in place.  They will let us know exactly the state of things there and who this Triad War Lord is and secure the vaccine.  My Economics Unit is already setting up ghost buyers in the Caribbean who will start to buy up stocks that have bottomed out.”

            “How do you plan to control these nations once we have control over the virus and the vaccine?”

            “The expected plan is that those nations who purchased our Cyber Unit’s services during their 2019 and 20 election season now form part of this new Climate Change Initiative.  We will, through our contacts in the WHO and the UN, bring it to their attention that they can actually control the population of the world, thus seeking a balance between nature and mankind on certain conditions.”

            “And these conditions?”

            “That will be up to Stephan and the members of the Politburo.”

            The Director of the SVR grinned.  “Then let it begin.”

Copyright Bob French

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.