The Middle East Conspiracy

Archibald R. Forsyth, the irascible Chief of Staff MI6, British Intelligence, Vauxhall, London, sat in his tan leather chair behind his desk reading a newspaper.   It was 4 P.M. Saturday, the 3^rd of April 2004 and he was waiting for a fax from an agent in Afghanistan to confirm or deny a rumor of a terrorist’s attack in England.

Street Argument Ends in Fatal Shooting!   That lead in the lower right hand corner of the front page caught his eye.   Although The London Times was careful with sensational stories, the paper did report the shooting was not random and the people involved knew each other.   According to the article, four men in a Russian black GAZ 24 “Volga” with the windows rolled down; pulled up to the sidewalk where three men were standing outside the Charing Cross Station, Craven Street side.

“We know what you’re up to,” bellowed a man in the back seat of the car, “If you plan to win in Iraq and disrupt the world’s oil supply by killing a couple of politicians, you have another think coming!   Russian interests will be looked after.”

The Russian interest in this matter had more to do with what the Americans were up to rather than what the terrorists were up to.  They had intercepts that told them the CIA was sending by “diplomatic” courier important intelligence; not only on al-Qaida, but also on an imperialistic agenda the U.S. planned for Kuwait.   They assigned Major Yuri Luzhkov of the Russian Intelligence Service, to acquire that information by whatever means necessary.