Telefon Page #2

- Yes, thank you.

- Service for three, Dimitri.

- Yes, sir.

STRELSKY:
cleopatra says

there will be snow from the west.

Tell me, major. Have you ever seen

drug-induced hypnosis?

I think I just did.

when you have finished your discussion

with the major, I want that back directly.

certainly, generaI.

Meantime, do not let it out of your sight.

Just after the U-2 spy flights,

we started the counter operation.

we thought they were looking for targets.

A nuclear confrontation seemed imminent.

we gave the operation a code name.

Telefon.

- I never heard of it.

- You were never meant to.

Telefon was more than top secret.

Much more.

It was a network of the finest deep-cover

agents any nation ever produced.

They're to infiltrate, burrow deep...

...and wait for the signaI to strike

in the event of nuclear war.

Happily for all of us,

we did not have to activate.

we recruited all the best

English-speaking students we could find.

we drilled them in every detaiI

of American life.

Then we handpicked the cream

for drug-assisted hypnosis.

when we'd finished,

each of them really believed...

...that he or she was the deceased

American they were to replace.

In areas close to military targets.

You see what a brilliant concept

Telefon was.

cleopatra says there will be snow

from the west. Bang, bang, bang.

Yes.

But then we gave them all

another trigger phrase.

Part of a poem by an American poet,

Robert Frost.

That, coupled with

their originaI Russian name...

...would launch them off

on their individuaI missions.

Each mission virtually a suicide trip.

But they're all ready to die.

That too was planted

in their subconscious.

All it took to activate

was a simple telephone call.

when did you bring them out?

we didn't.

They're still there?

All but Bascom, Hassler, Peters.

- How many more are there?

- Fifty-one left.

Spread across the entire country.

There are only two of these,

listing all the Telefon agents.

GeneraI Strelsky's

and the one in secret documents.

That one is missing.

we now know that Dalchimsky took it.

why would Dalchimsky be setting off

your human time bombs?

could be that the Stalinist lunatic...

...was seeking revenge for their failure

to overthrow us recently...

...or perhaps some maniacaI dedication

to be known...

...among the survivors as the man

who started world war III.

But the reasons why

are no longer important.

All that matters now

is that he must be found and stopped.

why not ask the chairman

to pick up the hotline to the white House?

Simply lay out the problem.

Let the cIA do something constructive

for a change.

An obvious solution, Grigori.

Unfortunately, denied us.

why?

Because the chairman

doesn't know about Telefon.

when he came into office

and detente became the party policy...

...and the agents had been in their place

all those years without being used...

...we didn't think, GeneraI Strelsky and I,

that it was necessary to tell him.

I can't believe you of all people

could get yourself into that kind of position.

I can hardly believe it myself, but I did.

So now I am to step forward

and say, "Send me to America.

I'm the only man for that mission"?

You're not the only man, Grigori.

But all things considered,

you are the most qualified.

But to send just one man-

But you'll be met by our American contact,

one of our very best people.

Grigori, my dear old friend...

...you're completely familiar with America,

having been there so many times already.

In addition, Dalchimsky's never seen you

or your American contact.

An essentiaI factor

in preventing alarming him.

And most important to us,

you have a photographic memory.

But to find him in time...

And what's to stop him

from taking out that book...

...calling all the names in it

one after the other...

...untiI the Americans know it is us

and retaliate?

I have no answer for that.

come in.

Your tea, sir.

- Shall I pour, sir?

- Thank you, comrade...

- ... we'll pour our own.

- Very good, sir.

You must learn each of the American

cover names written down there.

Each of their Russian names.

Each of their communities.

Each of their telephone numbers.

Each of their targets.

And of course, the trigger phrase.

That's written on the flyIeaf.

Nothing in there must be written down,

only transferred to your memory.

You, in effect, Grigori,

become the third book.

Now, take Peters, for example,

the last agent triggered.

"Akron, ohio. Mark Peters. Anton Tokov.

216-788-8837.

Munitions storage depot.

Apalachicola, Florida.

carI Hassler. "

SANDBURG:
It's hard to believe, isn't it?

- Yes, sir. It is hard to believe, but-

SANDBURG:

In.

- Yes, sir?

- Ah, Putterman.

As our resident Muscovite analyst,

how would you like a challenge...

...this evening in the category

of Russian bric-a-brac?

we only grow by challenge, sir.

The pearI is the result of friction.

- The butterfly is the result of-

- This piece of memorabilia.

Putterman, please.

PUTTERMAN:
where did this surface?

- Apalachicola. It's part of the Hassler debris.

- That's very curious.

- we know that, Putterman. we know that.

we just want your confirmation

as to what the damn thing is, huh?

oh, it's an No9.

The timing mechanism makes

the identification positive beyond question.

This particular timing device

was designated an No9...

...at a 1958 NATo meeting

of the counter-espionage agencies.

The No reflects the weapon's production

at a plant in Noginsk.

The nine indicates there were eight

previous models.

Thank you, Putterman,

for the refresher course. Thank you.

- well, you were right. It is an No9.

- well, yes, sir.

I thought it was when we had-

PUTTERMAN:

we haven't seen an No9 since '66.

Even the Vietcong stopped using them

in September of that year.

Get a report out on this

to A2 at the Pentagon.

Let's see what the big brains can do

with a simple question, huh?

Like how and why pieces of No9s were

found in the fueI tanks of Hassler's chopper.

Maybe the Vietcong have landed

in Apalachicola.

SANDBURG:

Jesus, I hope so. They can have it.

well, it's evident that

someone has landed.

Three military installations attacked

within days.

Three saboteurs using names

of men who passed away years ago.

The probability factor of their being

anything except Sov-bloc agents is 33 to 1.

Dotty Putterman, I love you.

You know, I am probably the agency's

foremost fan...

...of your virtuosity with the computers.

Every time the Reds lose a ball game,

you think it's some Kremlin plot.

with their lineup, sir,

it's the only way they'd ever lose.

Ahem. Quite seriously, sir, I'd urge a

full-field investigation, an in-depth probe.

we should probably call the FBI.

- Screw the FBI.

ENDERS:
oh, they'd love that.

Give them an excuse to check out the

environmentalists, dancing societies...

...organic-food freaks and, uh, oh, yes,

the lefty priests.

It's precisely that kind of attitude that led

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