The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

maimed. On the other hand, he was very curious to see what was happening in the city withhis own eyes, and he also felt the need to test himself in a truly dangerous situation.When Victor and Yuri returned to the embassy, the mood in the common roomimproved immediately. As soon as they stepped out of the car, they headed immediately tothe resident’s office. Colleagues greeted them as returning heroes in the corridor in front ofOsadchiy’s office.“What’s going on there?” “Who’s winning?” “Are there many casualties?”Yuri didn’t respond. Victor used one choice word to characterize the situation in thecity. Both entered Osadchiy’s office. Yuri came out a couple minutes later holding a notepadwith blank sheets for encrypted cables. He headed to the office of the resident’s deputy,Orlov-Morozov, to write an urgent cable to the Center. The resident then called Starostininto his office.“Victor will go with you,” he said.“Understood,” Valery responded, energized by the news. It would be a dream towork with Bubnov. Victor was his close friend. Everybody knew him as a reliable andcourageous person.“Don’t say anything to Tamara yet,” warned the resident, “otherwise she won’t beable to work. Right now she is our most important source of information.”“Certainly,” replied the operative.Tamara, Valery’s wife, worked as a Residency interpreter. While Valery was meetingwith the resident, she was sitting in a separate room with a special radio receivermonitoring the communications between different headquarters and military detachments,as well as the communications between the many different units within the military55