CHAPTER 12
CIA VS. KGB
A
s I wound my way back from the bustling open bar, a small plate
of tapas balanced precariously on top of my Cuba Libre, I couldn’t
help but notice that Soviet first secretary “Boris Gudenov” appeared to be
hitting on my beautiful wife, Stacy.
Yes!
I had never met Boris in person, although I knew more about him than
he knew about me. Born in Moscow to educated parents, he had developed
into a fast-track “golden boy” by a young age in the Soviet Foreign Min-
istry. He held a diplomatic rank in the Soviet embassy, but the CIA had
concluded for a variety of reasons that Boris was in fact a KGB officer. I
was up to speed on a lot of his biographical data after carefully reviewing
his extensive CIA file. His wife accompanied him abroad. During his pre-
vious assignment to a sleepy Central American nation, Boris carried on
an illicit affair with an attractive local Latin woman, who just happened to
be on the CIA’s payroll. Boris had a kind and intelligent Russian face, and
looking back I realize that physically he very much resembled Vladimir
Putin, but with a full head of wavy, sandy brown hair.
I learned in advance from one of our multiple sources of information
that Boris would likely show up at this reception without his wife. I’d briefed
Stacy on Boris and on the game plan for the evening, which included using
her as “bait” to lure him into a friendly ambush. (It was the least I could do
after the Chinese restaurant fiasco.) Her mission was to stand there in the kill
zone while I loitered at the bar and observed the scene. Based on what I knew
of Boris, I would not have to wait long for the scheme to unfold organically.
Our gambit worked like a charm. He went for the bait. I hustled back
to my nervous wife, offered Boris a croqueta, and we were off and running.
Up until that point, no CIA officer had ever met Boris in person.125