Chapter One

Moscow October 1952

Dimitri Azorov was infuriated that he had been summoned to Moscow. He felt sure that he was about to be arrested and placed in a Gulag. Being an agent working for the Ministry for State Security (MGB) was a tough form of employment during the Cold War. In recent times his contacts had not supplied much or accurate information about the upcoming American National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) projects. The over- night train trip from Orenburg, near the Kazakhstan border, to Moscow had added tiredness and little sleep increased his anxiety.

Born of middle-class parents, his father was employed as an electrical engineer at the small power station of his home town. Dimitri grew up getting a good education. His father, Aleksey, felt that after the war it would not be long before English would be the only language used in the world. He undertook self-education in English so he could teach Dimitri and his younger sister, Tatyana. By the time the siblings were in their early teens they were proficient in both oral and written English. For fun, they started to copy British and American accents and for Dimitri this was to become a valuable life skill.

Not overly handsome, however for some reason, his blond hair and blue eyes brought admiration from women of all ages admiring his beauty. Demure in character, he was able to blend into any group of people from politicians, and scientists to factory workers. He gained their trust leading to easy information garnering. Dimitri had just celebrated his 28th birthday on assignment in Saint Petersburg. He always missed his family on family birth- days and festive occasions.

Today, dressed as a business man he was blending into the crowd like many others, on their way to work. He walked the short distance from the Lubyanka Metro Station to the Lubyanka building in the Meshchanksky district and reported to the security station. He could not admit to anyone, even the security staff that he worked for the MGB, as they did. After a short over-zealous interrogation from an overly officious security officer he took a seat and waited for Grisha Dragunov to summon him to his office. Dragunov was head of the Security Counter Intelligence Service of the MGB as well as being a director of the prestigious Cosmonautic program. It was through counter espionage that he was successful in forcefully recruiting scientists and gathering resources from the Third Reich after World War.

The knowledge and equipment gained allowed the Soviet space and missile program to prosper during the early 1950s. Dimitri had heard rumours within various circles that the MGB was about to change into a new organisation and this added to the stress of worrying about his future.

He felt a drop of sweat run down his temple. He wiped it off and told himself to concentrate and not allow his fear to show. Dragunov walked over to his seat and, with a simple gesture, indicated for Dimitri to follow him. He was quite the opposite in appearance to Dimitri. He was in his late forties, quite short with a waistline that showed he enjoyed the finer delicacies of life. His receding hairline joined the greying hair. His slightly puffed rosy cheeks were highlighted by a short pitch-black moustache worn in a style comparable to Adolf Hitler’s.

They entered a large stark office, with little furniture, where he was offered a seat. Grisha asked him about his family. He answered feeling deep concerns for their safety. Grisha followed up with a few general questions about his recent spy activities. This did not feel like an interrogation. Dragunov walked over to the window and, as he looked into the distance, gave Dimitri an order that he was to travel to the US to increase observations. He would head a team of three other spies.

Dimitri’s anxiety had transformed into excitement with the promotion and he dared not ask if a salary adjustment was applicable. Dragunov went on to explain some of the high-level details about the mission and stated that the information was required urgently and they were to leave at the end of the week. For the rest of the day he was briefed by many advisors, all being important and wanting their own particular pieces of information.

The next morning, he again reported to the same security station where the same security officer now had a completely different attitude and was most helpful in escorting him to an office set up for his use. An hour later Dragunov arrived and introduced him to the three agents he was to lead. They were Fedor Pavienko, Oleg Yazov and Ivan Loskutov. Dimitri had worked with Oleg briefly during a small mission in the Uzbekistan region where they were trying to seek out a group of nomadic activists. Typical of the organisation the details of the mission were extremely detailed in many minor areas whilst other important facets had been overlooked. During their planning they were surprised to learn that they would only be in the US for ten days and to attend several meetings set up for them.

They were to pose as company representatives of the Seattle Forging Company trying to get lucrative contracts in the space industry. The foundry was equipped to manufacture a variety of different metal products. Founded in 1920, the Seattle Forging Company was set up in the industrial district of Seattle on the banks of Duwamish waterway. One of its early customers was the nearby Boeing factory to which it supplied castings and metal products. The Company was manufacturing components for the B-47 Stratojet and the B-52 Stratofortress whilst working with Boeing engineers developing new components for the new 367-80 jet airliner. Other big customers included the Vigor Shipyards and Sicks Rainier Brewing Company. The MGB had deep connections with the SFC and it was easy to utilise its promotional literature, metallurgy reports, and forging techniques. The MGB assisted financially, ensuring the SFC’s pricing structure was certain to attract the attention of the scientists and procurement managers. It was vital that Dimitri and his team obtained critical Piping and Instrumentation Drawings of the solid fuel system that would allow an accurate pricing for the forging and development of components.

Ivan Loskutov was given a Belgium passport with the name of Adrien Mertens who had been a produc- tion supervisor at the Polish explosives company Dynamitaktiengesellschaft’s plant just outside the small city of Bydgoszcz. His parents had perished in the concentration camps during the war. Fedor Pavienko and Oleg Yazov were given German passports in the names of Franz Kruger and Henrik Schneider as their slight Russian accent could, hopefully, be mistaken for the German dialect. Fedor was a metallurgist having worked at the Volklinger Ironworks. He was experienced with steel castings used for armour protection of military tanks. They had been using steel thicknesses of between 8 mm and 250 mm to stop the penetration of projectiles. Gauging steel thickness was a balancing act as thin steel did not prevent piercing and thick steel was too heavy, reducing speed and manoeuvrability of the tanks. The Germans were trying to develop an alloy of steel that had superior strength and lightness in their tank manufacturing. Oleg, highly qualified, had worked as a process engineer. He had worked in several German plants, starting his career in oil refining and, towards the end of World War II, was one of the lead engineers in the development of the V-2 rocket. His input into the project was the design and manufacture of the launching skids. The aim of his project was to produce a portable launch site that was not damaged by the rocket take-off and was able to be used straightaway.

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