The Sum of All Fears.pdf - Delta Force

embassies, but were so poorly paid and regarded that they were still called
'clerks,' not even, 'technicians.' Some resented that. Some resented it enough
that they had decided that they could make money from what they knew. They all
learned eventually that intelligence agencies pay poorly (except for CIA, which
rewarded treason with real money), but by then it was always too late to turn
back. From Walker the Russians had learned how American cipher machines were
designed and how their keying systems worked. The basics of the cipher machines
hadn't really changed all that much in the preceding ten years. Improved
technology had made them more efficient and much more reliable than their
stepping-switch and pin-disc ancestors, but they all worked on a mathematical
area called Complexity Theory, which had been developed by telephone engineers
sixty years earlier to predict the working of large switching systems. And the
Russians had some of the best mathematical theorists in the world. It was
believed by many that knowledge of the structure of cipher machines might enable
a really clever mathematician to crack a whole system. Had some unknown Russian
made a theoretical breakthrough? If so . . .
'We have to assume there are more we haven't caught. Add that to their technical
expertise, and I'm really worried.'
'Doesn't affect the Bureau directly, thank God.' Most of the FBI encrypted
communications were voice links, and though they could be broken, the data
recovered was both too time-sensitive and further disguised by the use of
code-names and slang that mostly concealed what agents were up to. Besides
which, the opposition had real limits on how many things they could examine.
'Can you have your people do some scratching around?'
'Oh, yeah. You're going up the chain on this?'
'I think I have to, Dan.'
'You're bucking a couple of major bureaucracies.'
Ryan leaned against the doorframe. 'My cause is just, isn't it?'
'You never learn, do you?' Murray shook his head and laughed.
***
'Those bastard Americans!' Narmonov raged.
'What's the problem now, Andrey Il'ych?'
'Oleg Kirilovich, have you any idea what it is like dealing with a suspicious
foreign country?'
'Not yet,' Kadishev answered. 'I only deal with suspicious domestic elements.'
The effective abolition of the Politburo had perversely eliminated the
apprenticeship period during which an up-and-coming Soviet political figure
might learn the international version of statecraft. Now they were no better off
than Americans were. And that, Kadishev reminded himself, was something to keep
in mind. 'What seems to be the problem?'
'This must be kept absolutely secret, my young friend.'
'Understood.'
'The Americans have circulated a memorandum around their embassies to make
discreet inquiries concerning my political vulnerability.'
'Indeed?' Kadishev did not allow himself to react beyond the single word. He was
immediately struck by the dichotomy of the situation. His report had had the