A Patchwork of Old Spies

When the Cold War came to an abrupt end and the USSR imploded, the West was caught off guard. Attention had focused on the eastern block of Soviet satellite states. As a result the West had largely ignored the rise of radical Islamic groups, meaning that Western intelligence agencies had few on-the-ground resources in the Middle East, few Arabic speakers, few directors and station chiefs schooled in the language, history, and culture of that part of the world. Being taken by surprise by the collapse of the Soviet Union was considered a failure in analysis, a failure in judgment, a failure in data collection, a failure to recognize whatever information was received, a failure of oversight, and, of course, a failure of leadership. The Ames case increased attention on the lack of focus considered rampant in intelligence organizations, as spies, moles, double agents, and handlers were outed. Most reports on file were found to be tainted and unreliable. Ultimately, a cut in funding significantly reduced intelligence communities to the status of being just another bureaucracy with no prestige, power, or innate sense of professionalism. Overseas spy networks disappeared. Many agents like Bill and Jerry retired.

In the States, the CIA was the major casualty and Jack’s AIC was disbanded. In Great Britain, MI-6 was equally adversely affected and Sir Conrad Avery was forced to retire. Jack’s agents retired as well, most of them to Chipley Island. Conrad’s group escaped to different parts of the Commonwealth, especially the Caribbean. But the two Cold War warriors, Jack and Conrad, kept in touch with each other and with their teams.

They also continued to monitor world events and to encourage their agents to keep up their skills. It was understood that freelancing was more than acceptable. Spymaster kept in touch with spymaster and spy with spy. They were all very much aware that not much had changed in this new and smaller Russia. Yes, it had restructured its intelligence service. The KGB was now the FSB (Russian Federal Security Service), and a new entity, the SVR (Russian Foreign Intelligence Service), was its companion. No matter. The FSB was still the KGB and it continued to operate out of the infamous Lubyanka Prison in Moscow. Russian internal security was manned by former KGB agents and their foreign service by newer recruits, operatives rigorously trained by those old warriors in counterterrorism.

Suddenly Josie spoke up.

“I’m beginning to see where this is going. Ames might not have been the only sleeper. The art of deception and disinformation could have applied to my patches job. I never guessed that it wasn’t so much a problem of connecting the dots, but of figuring out which pieces didn’t belong, or better yet, which patches were there just to cover or hide something. So-called professorial patches on the elbows of tweed jackets are there just for show; they don’t cover a tear or a hole; in that sense, the patch is deceptive; it is there for decoration, a fashion statement. It’s not really a patch, and so I never thought to look at what wasn’t there. The dissident groups I monitored were ordinary run-of-the-mill protesters. The sleepers were just that. Sleepers. Non-participants. Tracking all those groups was a waste of time. No wonder … ah! it was you, Uncle Jack, who somehow closed down the Patches program and sent me to Paris. AIC was under a presidential order to wind down and close shop. I went to work for the Trojan, who was also supposed to close down his European network. But you knew he wouldn’t à la Dylan Thomas ‘go gentle into that good night,’ so you sent me as your personal sleeper agent. Damn you! I’m out of here! No more! I don’t want to know anything about Seagull. Just get off Chipley Island and take these MI-6 people with you! To hell with all of you! I’m through!”