“A Russian sleeper agent inserts another bug,” said Berg. “And the Russians’ ‘fifth generation’ Sukhoi Su-57 fighter is selling like hotcakes around the world. Turkey just canceled its F-35 contract with Lockram Industries. Last year, India signed the largest single military aircraft order in United Aircraft Corporation’s history.”
“Speaking of the Russian Federation–owned United Aircraft Corporation, their MC-21-300 series sure took off—pardon the pun—in the wake of Boeing’s 737 MAX’s second string of flight system failures. Several near crashes that scrapped the aircraft. UAC’s shiny new MC-21-300 manufacturing and repair plant in Minsk just happened to be ready to compete with Airbus for the abandoned Boeing contracts and 737 MAX replacements.”
“They really did a number on us,” said Berg. “And reclaimed some of their former satellite states. I think that’s the ultimate goal here. To rebuild some of the former Eastern Bloc. Enough to better fortify themselves against what they truly see as NATO aggression—and make billions in the process. Putin and his oligarch buddies won’t waste a good opportunity to make money.”
“So it’s not all about the money,” said Devin.
“No. We don’t have the time for me to distill what I learned over the course of three decades about the Russians, but I can tell you this: they called us the ‘main adversary’ for a reason. They no-shit believed we were out to get them and had always been out to get them—and that we drove every other country to do the same. And for a little while, that’s exactly what we did. But this mindset didn’t spring to life with the Cold War,” said Berg. “The Russians had been invaded time and time again by European powers. Napoleon in 1812. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire in World War I. Betrayed and invaded by Hitler’s armies in 1941. One of Stalin’s main objectives in the aftermath of World War II was to create a buffer from future European and Middle Eastern invaders, which he did by creating the Eastern Bloc. This need for geographical security is ingrained in their DNA.”
“Right along with the need to add billions of dollars to the tens or hundreds of billions they’ve already bilked out of the system—converted to rubles, of course,” said Devin.
“Especially if you’re tanking the US dollar with your conspiracy,” said Berg. “I think we’re looking at the soft occupation of several former Eastern Bloc states. Hungary. Belarus. Kazakhstan. More will follow.”
“We can’t be the only ones seeing this pattern,” said Devin.
“Probably not, but without the specific knowledge of a widespread sleeper network corrupting the shit out of our technology, why would anyone suspect this is a foreign state effort? This isn’t like a normal cyberattack they can trace. This is an attack from within. A ‘mistake’ made by an employee who’s held a security clearance for years. Who has no suspicious bank activity or sketchy contacts. The company investigates the hardware or software related to the accident and fires the employee—who could not care less. They’re a Russian sleeper agent, after all. Story over. Rinse and repeat with a different company. As long as you don’t get greedy and drop every plane, rocket, and satellite out of the sky at once, nobody will figure it out. My guess is that if we ever get to the bottom of this whole conspiracy, we’ll find that every layer supports their long game. Slowly but surely expanding Russian influence in Eastern Europe.”
“And weakening the US,” said Devin.
“By weakening the US,” said Berg. “They can’t expand their influence without fracturing NATO, driving wedges between Western powers, and rendering the United States less relevant in Europe’s eyes. This is a very long game. One they won’t give up easily. Look what they did to your mother.”
Berg’s last sentence hit him hard. His mother had been right all along, and everyone had treated her as though she were insane. Devin included.
But she’d given them no reason to think otherwise! How the fuck were they supposed to guess she was fighting a one-person war against Russia? They weren’t. For a good reason. Helen Gray had chosen to shield her family from this nightmare, by making the most difficult decision imaginable. By giving up her family for something she believed would save countless lives. From what he’d read in her library, she hadn’t drawn the same end-game conclusion as Karl Berg.
Devin’s mother had gone to her grave suspecting that hundreds of sleeper agents had penetrated American society, far more than the 109 born of the seventy-three suspicious couples she had identified. She had been well aware of her limitations. That she could only back trace public figures’ family histories to determine if they fit the profile of sleepers dropped off in America during the seventies. That the sleepers working behind the scenes at big tech companies or in lower-level government positions would remain hidden from her.