Consequences Unforeseen

Moscow May 1991 ... Arrival

This chapter is a continuation of Chapters 19 &  20 –   You might want to read them again to refresh your memory. They concerned the Russian President Gorbachev.

 

Moscow May 6th 1991

Международный Аэропорт Шереметьево, (Sheremetyevo International Airport) was busy at this early hour of Monday morning May 6th 1991. The immigration hall teemed with thousands of nondescript people and their groans of frustration because they had no option but to move sluggishly along the roped in lines towards the waiting official. The cameras looked down on them all, scanning and recording facial details for the vast recognition system’s computers humming away in the bowels of the main terminal building.

Bill Douglas had no fear of them, or of being recognized. He was in the system already and indeed he was well known by the computers and the immigration officials alike. For more than a year now he had been travelling through Moscow regularly on a monthly basis.

His credentials as a lecturer in organic chemistry at Glasgow University were well recognized and his lectures at the Moscow Institute of Technology attracted students and lecturers from multiple Universities and Colleges from Moscow, St. Petersburg and beyond.

The reason he was so popular and his sessions so well attended was because he used humor and anecdotes to have his audience laughing at themselves and challenging their thinking on matters going far beyond their study of organic chemistry and its applications.

Douglas’ premise was that good old organic chemistry was root to practically all other sciences and was fundamental in examining the nature of matter. His thoughts were well ahead of their time and caused serious debate amongst all who attended. long after they returned to their institutions.

He was particularly focused on, and sometimes ridiculed for, his insistence that organic and bio chemistries were the keys to future medicine and intelligent mechanisms. He postulated that the utilization of chemical sensors in protein biomarkers and for the detection of airborne toxins would become normal operating procedure. These were of particular interest in the Soviet Union because of the non existent health and safety regulations.

The more far sighted of scientists based there grasped where Douglas was headed with his theories and it added much to his acceptance in Moscow where he had become a common guest at high level social gatherings and government dinner parties.

The car that picked him up on his arrival was always provided by the Institute and he normally stayed in one of the comfortable but not ostentatious halls of residence while he was there.

On this visit however, he had interests other than chemistry to take care off and he considered himself fortunate to have been propositioned by the air hostess on the flight from Tokyo. Her offer of lodging coupled with other benefits was in some ways too good to be true and he felt sure there was more afoot in her approach.

Originally he had intended to stay in one of the Agency’s safe houses, but this unexpected turn of events gave the potential for more anonymity than he usually maintained. Not one to be careless in his choices, he had a good feeling about this girl. His instinct for opportunity to improve operational effectiveness had kicked in once more.

She met him immediately he left customs, took his arm, kissed him lightly and giggled suggestively in his ear. “Let’s get out of here. I want to talk to you privately,” she said.

His acute sense of field craft picked up on the use of the word ‘privately’ and he sensed that there was no double entendre intended in the remark. His mental antenna was now on full alert and he was surer than ever that this original attempt at seduction had deeper roots.