Updated for A MATTER OF REVENGE! An all-new "Conversation with a Confidential Source"!

At the end of the first book, UNDER CLOAK OF DARKNESS, I included a portion of an interview with an anonymous source. Although I remain unable to reveal that person's identity, this man knew much about John Apparite and his missions and was able to expound further on them. Here is another selection from that interview containing material pertinent to A MATTER OF REVENGE:

Interviewer (I): Tell me more about the events at the "Bulge." It's a strange coincidence that brought together the fates of the Director, Dr. Hoevenaers and Apparite's father; and then later Apparite and the SS man, Heydrich.

Anonymous (A): It's a rather remarkable episode. It's not clear how much the Director knew about Apparite prior to enlisting him into his agency, but he did obviously recognize the name as that of the son of his Bulge "savior." What I find strange is that the Director then placed Apparite into a position where he might have had to kill him in the "Driver-Test." I've often wondered whether he could really have done it--could have actually ordered the killing of the son of the man who had once saved his life.

I: What do you think?

A: I think he would have done it at the time--he had this connection to Apparite from the past, but didn't really know him on a personal level. I doubt he could have done it a year later, however. By then the two were too close; like father and son. Still--we'll never know. That's one thing I've always liked about the Director--you could never quite predict what he might do. And it kept people on their toes, believe me.

I: What were the samples and plans in the Director's case that he'd brought out of Germany in 1944?

A: There were samples of "heavy water" and uranium in lead-lined cylinders, as well as a detailed dossier on the progress of Nazi Germany's nuclear weapons program. When the Defense Department saw the material, it accelerated our own program to insure we got "The Bomb" before they did. And the Nazi's plans, in some places, actually helped us in areas where our scientists at Los Alamos were stuck. As an intelligence achievement, it was a monumental one. People forget, if they ever even knew in the first place, that the Director was one hell of an operative in his own right back in those days.

I: And Heydrich? How was his death received in France?

A: On the surface it certainly looked mysterious, but foul play was never suspected. In the intelligence community, though, the message was clear: Don't anyone try this again. In the mid-1960's, Heydrich's superior, the famous SS Lieutenant-Colonel Joachim Peiper, who was also tried for war-crimes at Dachau and was imprisoned, died under similar circumstances in a house fire in France. Nothing was ever proven, but that one certainly looked like a revenge-killing, as Peiper had never been involved in any espionage activities himself.

I: The spy tunnel was an interesting thing--it was even the focus of a good novel by Ian McEwan, THE INNOCENT. A lot of people think it was one of the great CIA-MI6 coups of the Cold War.

A: It was actually a joint U.S.-U.K. operation. Most people remember it as an operation of CI since the Soviets never really called the English on the carpet for their part in it. The bizarre thing is that some of the Russians knew about it all the time! The Russian's MI6 mole, the famous turn-coat George Blake, was present in British planning meetings for the tunnel and gave it all away to the Soviets. And yet the Soviets continued to use the tapped phone lines, not wanting to take a chance of exposing Blake as the source of their info. But the thing about the Soviets was that they were fragmented as hell: the people that knew of the tunnel were careful about what came across those lines, but those who did not know--and most KGB operatives had not been told about it--were not. So, strange as it sounds, even though the Soviets knew about the tunnel, the CIA still got what it wanted from it! After a time, the East Germans were allowed to "discover" it, and it was done in a way that did not jeopardize Blake's position. The U.S. then briefly planned another one in Berlin, but eventually gave up on the idea. They'd done one in Vienna, too, earlier in the decade that had worked out okay, but the Berlin tunnel remains the famous one.

I: Zhdanovich and Apparite had a unique relationship for "enemies."

A: Theirs was a relationship of mutual respect and trust; each man had a duty to perform, and doing it superseded any personal enmity that might have normally existed between them. But as they liked each other immensely anyway, it seemed easier and safer to cooperate and trust each other than to try and kill or use each other. Most rival spies weren't interested in killing their enemies unless specifically directed to do so: in general, spies spy; they don't kill. In fact, most spies will tell you that their jobs tend to be more boring than exciting. There's more research and waiting and such involved in it than anything else.

I: What was Zhdanovich if he wasn't SMERSH? Was he KGB?

A: No; it's believed that he was a Russian version of a "Superagent," hired directly by those in power--like Bulganin, the Russian Prime Minister--as opposed to working for their official agencies. Apparite and Zhdanovich did meet again, by the way, but that's a story for another time.

I: I like the fact that it's their love of professional sports which brings the two together: Apparite and the Senators, and Zhdanovich and the Moscow Dynamo football club.

A: Sports played a role in a lot of what Apparite did at the time: the Director used to play catcher for the Senators; Apparite sees the ballgame in New York; he brawls with Kid Leonard, the new welterweight champion; and then he and Zhdanovich bond over their favorite teams. But there's nothing surprising in that: how often, when you take two men with basically nothing in common, do they start talking about, say, the NFL? Or Major League baseball? Happens all the time--it's kind of a default setting for two men with nothing else to talk about, or two men who don't feel comfortable talking about anything else.

I: The Sam Rice episode--tell me more about that.

A: Sam Rice was one of the great outfielders of the early 1920's, and made this incredible catch in the 1925 World Series where he went flying into the stands--in fact, afterwards they made a rule that said if you completely left the field of play, it would be scored a home run. And even though the Senators lost that Series, for decades everyone wanted to know about that catch. But other than this one time with Apparite, Sam Rice never said anything about it while he was alive. The truth was revealed in 1974 in a sealed letter he'd sent to Cooperstown ten years earlier, to be opened only after his death. Of course, by then a lot of people had forgotten about the catch in the first place, but back in 1956, it would have still been a fairly hot topic, especially to a Senators fan like Apparite. By all accounts, Sam was a very nice man, so it's no wonder the Director turned to him to help Apparite out--even if Rice had no idea who Apparite really was, or why he had been asked to do so.

I: Did Apparite ever see Christiane again? Where was she relocated?

A: She was flown into western Germany; not back to her family's original town of Otterberg, although she was relocated only a short train ride away. She and Apparite never met again--at least, not as far as I know. There is one interesting thing regarding their relationship that I may divulge sometime--but I'm not ready to do that today.

I: Tell me about tetrodotoxin and its uses.

A: The Japanese eat this highly poisonous fish called the Puffer Fish. The toxin is in certain parts of the fish but not in others, so if it's carefully cleaned the correct way, it can still be safely eaten--if not, then the person often dies. I'm told it tastes like--well, like regular fish. It's the thrill of eating it that lures people. This toxin is present in other creatures, too, including some Amazonian frogs and--as used by Apparite--in the Blue-Ringed Octopus, which lives in the South Pacific. The purified toxin is highly deadly, and was isolated by biochemists employed by the Director in the mid-1950's, far ahead of anyone else. They kept that secret to themselves, naturally! As far as I know, it's still used. Don't ask me for specific instances, though.

I: I like how Christiane escaped from East Berlin, hiding inside the seat of a little Volkswagen.

A: That car had to be seen to be believed. It looked like a normal VW "Bug," of which there were tens of thousands in Berlin at the time, but the driver's seat was hollow. And yet despite it having been enlarged enough to contain a human body, the interior did not look any different than other VW's. As an optical illusion it was an impressive one, and no one ever got caught using it. But there was one limitation: you could not be over five-seven or weight more than about 140 pounds to fit in it, so only women and children could usually use it. While the Wall was standing, people did all sorts of things to get across: hot-air balloons, smuggling themselves in packing crates or metal drums--things like that. My favorite, though, comes from the time right after the Wall went up. There was a building in East Berlin on the Bernauerstrasse that was right on the sector border, so people would go into the building on the East German side with their luggage and then jump out of the windows on the other side to freedom on the street below! After a while, the Vopos had had enough of this and bricked-up the windows on the West Berlin side of the building. But of all the escape methods, that's the one that still cracks me up--I don't know why. Maybe because it's so obvious--and it took so long for the Soviets and Vopos to stop them! It's still amazing to think that that wall existed until 1989--I mean, that was only a few years ago. In my opinion, the Berlin Wall was one of the most shameful things in modern human history: a physical symbol of Communist oppression. It still pisses me off.

I: Tell me more about "D."

A: D was a very interesting man. His mother was an English war bride--from the First World War! His father served with General Patton back in that campaign--but, of course, Patton was a Captain or Major at the time, I recall. D was raised in England--his father was stationed there in the intelligence services--and educated at Oxford but ended up, of course, in the United States. His situation was unique in that he was serving with MI5, and not the CIA or FBI, when he was recruited by the Director. But D had extensive knowledge and experience in European intelligence affairs which is the reason the Director brought him on, even though he came from the British side of the fence, so to speak. D was a very nice man, and though he did not appear terribly intimidating on the surface-reminding people of a college professor-he had a tremendous amount of strength and fortitude. Later events showed how important, and necessary, that would become. But getting back to D's origins, the fact that the Director would bring on an ex-British intelligence man was revealing--most other American agencies wouldn't have touched one with a ten foot pole! But the Director was only interested in results. If you could do the job, he didn't give a shit about anything else-as long as you passed his very careful 'vetting,' of course. So he used guys like J, D, and even Dr. Hoevenaers all the time-they were people he could trust and rely on, which is everything in intelligence work. And the results speak for themselves.

I: I've been curious about something: can you tell me about other successful operations prior to Apparite joining the agency? Something I might have heard of

A: (smiling) I can't tell you specifics, but here's one of the best--remember Apparite's dossier from his first plane ride to London? When he was told about Viktor killing a man who he believed killed Stalin in 1953?

I: I remember. He suspected one of Stalin's guards--a man named Khrustalev?

A: Right. Well, there really was a Khrustalev, but he didn't kill Stalin. Do you want to know how I know? It's simple--because Apparite's predecessor, Agent G, did! In late February 1953, Stalin made a trip to Riga, which is within boat distance of Finland. G landed there, infiltrated Stalin's accommodations and poisoned him. The poison, which was an early form of the modern anticoagulation agent Coumadin, called, back then, Bishydroxycoumarol, caused a fatal cerebral hemorrhage a few days later. And yet while everyone knows that Stalin died on March 5th, 1953 in Moscow, no one--until now--ever knew that an American Superagent killed him.

I: That's unbelievable! You're telling me that a Superagent assassinated Soviet Premier Josef Stalin?

A: Yes I am. But as amazing as that is, it's nothing compared to what I could tell you! (he pauses)

I: For instance?

A: (smiles again) Maybe after our next conversation! (he laughs) I don't want to overwhelm you!

ANOTHER CONVERSATION WITH A CONFIDENTIAL SOURCE for Under Cloak of Darkness: the Story of John Apparite

In preparation for UNDER CLOAK OF DARKNESS, I was able to locate only a couple of sources willing to speak openly about the Director's secret and powerful agency (none on the record or with the disclosure of their true names, it should be noted). And while attempting to do so, I noticed a curious phenomenon amongst those that refused: rather than the curt 'No Comment,' or 'I can neither confirm nor deny, etc…' responses one generally gets when inquiring about a classified or secret government project or agency, my queries were usually followed by something infinitely more forbidding: Silence.

That silence was more chilling to me than that of an audible threat or rebuke, and I ceased asking anything at all of legitimate government sources after only a half-dozen such discomforting calls. But of the few sources who did agree to an interview, one of them knew enough of the details of John Apparite's first few missions to speak with me for quite some time. Here is a selection from that illuminating conversation:

Interviewer (I): Can you tell me more about the Superagent interview process--where did it occur? Was the 'kill-the-driver' scenario frequently used?

Anonymous (A): In 1955, the CIA was located in a collection of temporary buildings in downtown D.C.--the Virginia complex was not built for some time afterward. So most official activities occurred in this general area, including the tests of John Apparite. The driver in the first test was a disabled but reliable ex-agent of CI, and always took the potential Superagent to and from the initial interview. The building where the interview took place was in central D.C. and was, you might be interested to hear, a very low-rent apartment complex--it was not an office building at all! It was torn-down around 1962, and my understanding is that the interview process then took place somewhere in the suburbs. The Driver-Test was always the first one performed; at least, up until the time it was disbanded.

I: Did anyone ever fail it?

A: (hesitating a moment) Umm--yes. There was one failure, although it was in the 1960's. The candidate didn't pull the trigger, and unfortunately the driver was forced to shoot him with his revolver. The driver was so disturbed by the incident that he quit and retired to Australia, and another test was derived to take its place. It's interesting that the Director had the agent who failed the test interred in the same place as the other Superagents that had been killed in the line of duty. The man might have failed the test, but he died as a Superagent. That's the kind of guy the Director was--he could be absolutely ruthless, but had his own brand of integrity. It's also interesting that it was shortly after this episode that the Director retired. I'm certain there was a connection.

I: Tell me more about the Hoover photographs.

A: Hoover was vacationing at the Hialeah Racetrack in 1952--he loved horseracing, by the way--and was tailed there by the Mob. They had heard rumors of his weakness, Hoover put himself in a compromising position, and they took advantage. After Dolci's, the photographs disappeared but are rumored to be in a secure box at a Swiss bank in Geneva, although no one has seen them for years. Then, in 1956, the FBI 'suddenly' began accelerating their Mafia investigations--look it up in history books; you'll see how obvious it is--leading to 'Apalachin' in November, 1957, which changed everything. What John Apparite did at Dolci's prompted the legitimate FBI persecution of the American Mafia--no exaggeration; it really did.

I: I've often wondered why the Director hired J if he was homosexual--wasn't he worried about him being blackmailed like Hoover had been?

A: J had been drummed-out of the FBI in the early fifties by Hoover; he joined the Director's agency on the condition that he be non-practicing as a homosexual, which he really didn't have much trouble doing at that point. He had also been so completely 'sheep-dipped'--even to the point of plastic surgery to alter his appearance--that there was never a concern for him being re-exposed or blackmailed. And even if it had occurred, J was prepared to commit suicide rather than expose the agency--as it turned out, that's what he had to do in London when faced with capture, anyway. He was quite a guy (he pauses in thought). I find it difficult to talk about him, you know, being how he died.

I: I've also wondered about Standerton: what happened at MI Six afterwards?

A: The SIS (Secret Intelligence Service)--the formal name for what is often called MI Six--suffered a worse internal than external blow: Standerton was never publicly mentioned-MI Six now denies he even existed--but his name is referred to there much as Quisling's is in Norway; it's practically synonymous with 'traitor.' The strangest thing about the whole episode is that to this day no one really knows why he did it. He had some connection with the 'Cambridge Spy Ring'--Burgess, MacLean, Philby, and that bunch--and he became a mentor of sorts to George Blake, who was a couple of years younger than him, but no one fully understands why he 'turned' in the first place. My own theory is that he thought he could pull it off better than anyone else and not get caught--it was the challenge of it; the sheer audacity of it. Kind of like Leopold and Loeb killing that kid in Chicago back in the twenties. For Standerton, it was his way of validating his superiority over all the 'lesser beings' around him. At least, that's what I think.

I: How did anyone find out the details of how he killed Agent G?

A: As you might have guessed, Standerton was an extremely arrogant man, and especially arrogant about what he was doing, so he kept a journal--a very meticulous journal--of everything he had done. After his eventual, planned defection to the Soviets, he was going to send it back to the U.K. to humiliate his old colleagues. But when he died it fell in the hands of the remnants of the London KGB, and was brought to CI by a KGB defector in the late fifties. If MI Six had been ashamed by what Standerton had done in the Reading Room, I can only imagine their horror when they found out the details of his other exploits. But in the end, Clive Hitch did get the last laugh at Standerton's expense, in a way: the KGB defector told us that absolutely nobody in the KGB or SMERSH could f-----g stand Standerton, even while he was working for them! Apparently, he was an equal opportunity asshole. Hitch would have loved hearing about that!

I: Hitch--tell me more about him.

A: Hitch's story was also suppressed, but his family received a sizable pension from MI Five, and he got a posthumous but secret commendation from the Queen-sort of like a behind-the-scenes "Victoria Cross." Also, and this is typical when Superagents are involved, Hitch's mother received an unexpected 3,000 pound deposit in her bank account. I'll let you guess who put it there.

I: The use of poisons by the Director and SMERSH is interesting--harks back to Roman times.

A: Yes; it seems like a very crude method to kill, but it's very effective and serves it purpose well. Gunshots and knives leave messes and attract attention, but people dying in hospitals by mysterious illnesses tend to do the opposite--oddly, no one really wants to know about them. The Ricinus poison, which is now simply called 'Ricin,' was used to kill Robert Kramer and Nikolai, but both sides used it, you know. The most famous case--which you might have heard of--was in 1978. The Bulgarians--or perhaps the Soviets--under advisement from the KGB's assassination division, killed dissident Georgii Markov just off Waterloo Bridge in London using an umbrella poison-gun and Ricin pellet. It took weeks for anyone to figure out he'd been murdered and then, looking back, they began to find other cases that had been done the same way. Although Apparite was poisoned by a similar apparatus boarding the Queen Elizabeth, we never were able to figure out what chemical had been used: it acted too rapidly to be Ricin, so we know it wasn't that. But this particular SMERSH poison was designed to make him ill and die within twenty-four to thirty-six hours, but not too quickly--ideally, it would begin acting when the ship was too far out to sea to turn back. They came very close to succeeding in his case.

I: What are your impressions of the Reading Room episode?

A: That was very tricky. In some elite spy circles the term "Reading Room" has become a euphemism for an extremely delicate mission with a high risk of exposure, even if the origin of the term remains unknown. So if you're a spy and someone tells you that you're mission is "a real Reading Room sort of thing," you know you're taking a big, big risk. The most remarkable thing about what happened there was how quickly and securely it was hushed-up, but of course the British Government was highly motivated to do that-you've got an elite MI Six agent killing a colleague and plotting to assassinate the Queen, and you don't want that getting out! If you go there--it's recently been restored and is open to the public--take a walk around the room just like Apparite. Sit down in seat A-seven, just like he did back in 'fifty-five. Look around; imagine you're there with Viktor, Standerton, and Nikolai. And then imagine what happened--it seems absolutely nuts that anyone would plan to pull off a double-assassination there. It's still about the most ambitious, openly brazen mission I've ever heard of, but it was a brilliant scheme.

I: The Reading Room turned out to be kind of a debacle, but the Director thought the overall mission was a success. Looking back, do you think so?

A: On a common-sense level, yes; of course. The Soviets never did get practical, portable solid-fuels until the seventies--they used liquid-fueled missiles a full decade after the U.S. had abandoned them. They covered-up these failings with their space program successes--like Sputnik, and Yuri Gagarin's flight--but the reality was that they'd fallen hopelessly behind in fuel development and technology that we took for granted. Also, the London KGB fell apart after the mission, and shortly after a bunch of them defected to us. And, of course, Standerton was dead--don't underestimate the importance of that. But on a personal level, it was tough with so many operatives on our side getting killed--J, Hitch, Agent G. It's all part of the game, but it's a damned tough game, you know? And sometimes, even when you win, you lose.