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Bill Granger

THE NOVEMBER MAN

This book is for Herman Kogan, a ferocious editor and writer in Chicago, who once told a young man that he should write books.

If you think we are worked by strings, Like a Japanese marionette, You don’t understand these things: It is simply Court etiquette. Perhaps you suppose this throng Can’t keep it up all day long? If that’s your idea, you’re wrong. —W. S. GILBERT

AUTHOR’S NOTE

This book reflects a struggle going on in the world of intelligence between those who deny the usefulness of agents, contractors, case officers, and all the other personnel involved in the business of espionage and those who defend the worth of HUMINT (human intelligence and analysis) in the face of the technological revolution.

The New York Times gathered estimates by intelligence officials, who agree that 85 percent of all information gained by the various U. S. intelligence agencies comes from ELINT (electronic signal intelligence), SIGINT (signal intelligence), PHOTINT (photo intelligence), RADINT (radar intelligence), and all the “hardware” sources, opposed to the information gained by spies (HUMINT).

Intelligence analyst Walter Laqueur noted in A World of Secrets that “the need for HUMINT has not decreased, but it has become fashionable to denigrate the importance of human assets because technical means are politically and intellectually more comfortable. On the other hand, the opportunities for hostile intelligence agents operating in democratic societies are incomparably greater than for their Western counterparts. ”

In 1985, there was a furious exchange of spies between East and West before the Reagan–Gorbachev summit. In every case of a mole’s “defection” to his true side, another agent in the field was picked up by the side sinned against. In one bizarre case, a Soviet KGB agent who “defected” West later “redefected” to the Soviet embassy in Washington, claiming he had been kidnapped. Central Intelligence Agency denied his claims. In 1986, a Chinese double agent buried inside CIA claimed he had worked for China for two decades to improve relations between the countries and not for monetary gain—though he had to take the money to convince the Chinese he was a legitimate traitor.

He committed suicide, according to official reports, by putting a plastic bag over his head in his cell and voluntarily suffocating himself.

These things are all true; these things are all reflected in this book.

—Bill Granger Chicago, 1986

^PROLOGUE

THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

In a little while, she had to go away. There were assignments in the East, in the Philippines, then back to Washington… She gave him the itinerary, she fussed about him. It was a way of making love to him.

This was the other way. Rita moved beneath him and her belly bumped his belly. They were tangles of arms, they were tastes and smells; they mingled with each other. Devereaux was never so lost as when he made love to her. Never so abandoned. There were no cold places in him when he made love to her. He cried out like a lost child when he came. She held his shuddering body with legs, arms, hands, pressed him into her. She closed her eyes very tight to feel the wonder of this very common act they shared with nearly every other member of the species.