As first impressions usually stick with you, I sensed at the border a heightened level of fear and distrust toward both the Westerners on the train as well as the rough crowd that I found myself a part of as we continued east from Kiev. That feeling remained as the conductor came through checking our tickets for the third time and telling the disheveled and nearly toothless traveler across from me to get his foot off the seat in front of him. Yuri introduced himself briefly when he finally found me on the train then parked himself in the sleeping compartment next to me and fell asleep. He would wake up every 20 or 30 minutes, get up, and nervously pace between the luggage wagon where all of our expedition provisions were stored and our sleeping compartment, where two other men in our group remained bunked out as the train made its way to the East. Yuri made notes on the maps where we were to pick up additional supplies, explosives, and a “specialist” or two that were necessary to carry out the mission. He often swore as he thought of things we needed to do to minimize the risk that we were going to be taking going into restricted areas.
One of the “specialists” would have documents waiting for us to authorize entry into zones that foreigners were absolutely forbidden from entering. Another specialist knew the deep Siberian territory that we were going to be traveling through and offered protection from either the dangerous natural environment or protection from the dangerous human element that was also part of the risk of traveling through the region. Yuri was most concerned about the danger posed by territorial “gangs” that had claimed certain Siberian regions as their own…and had established their own rule of law.
How the other two men in the compartment with us played into this fantastic mission, I was not yet aware of. And the mission itself…fantastic as it seemed…was to travel to at least three Siberian rocket debris sites to retrieve Soviet and Russian Space parts scattered throughout the Siberian steppe and forest…an area covering more than 10 million square kilometers. We were “focused” on three unusual orbital tracks from the Baikonur Space Complex that significantly reduced our number of target sites and the territory we had to cover. If unable to secure high value targets, we were to try to establish the beginnings of a network that would bring specific items out for delivery to the US or to US interests.
There was the hope that certain instrumentation and other devices would be still attached to first thru fourth stage rockets that had fallen back to Earth, crashing into remote areas that we now had maps and satellite imagery of. Our information detailed probable targets, the priorities for each site, and some of the dangers we could expect in the area. I couldn’t help noticing, as well, that notes written on some of the documents suggested we interview villagers in specific areas about reports that US MIA-POW’s had been repatriated/sold from China and held for decades since the Vietnam War in the Siberian forest where we were headed. That was not part of the information I had received in Warsaw as I had accepted this unusual task.
This mission and resulting trip had, in fact, been my brainchild that the CIA had adopted and "edited" after viewing an unusual fax at Artur's place late one afternoon.
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ATTENTION!
Russian Scientists and Team of Business Executives Offers:
1)Very High Purity Aviation/Aerospace Grade Aluminum and Titanium for Sale
2) Multiple locations in Russia for purchase and retrieval
3) Willing to provide a team of specialists to assist in operation.
4) Possible access to other strategic materials and "devices" related to space industry and military science.
***Interested parties contact 48 - 22 - XXX-XXX for more details.***
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