KGB by every opposing agency—were thick on the ground in Vienna, now that over two hundred thousand Chechen refugees had made their way here.
Or it could be the Serbs and Croats, who had declared a vendetta against him ever since he had run a small but extremely brutal private war against the Serbian Mafia in Venice. Another contender would be the Singaporean SID, whom Dalton had managed to piss off quite spectacularly only a few months ago.
Whoever it was, the Austrians were old hands at the spy game, and neither the KGB nor any other foreign security service would be allowed to run a surveillance operation without the permission, and perhaps the assistance, of the OSE, the Österreichische Spionage Abwehr Einheit. Austria had an official policy of neutrality—had ever since 1955—but that didn’t mean that allowances could not be made when it served the state.
Dalton had met, and respected, Austrian special forces soldiers doing UN work in Bosnia and Kosovo, and Galan had once told him the Austrians had a detachment in permanent position on the Golan Heights. The Austrians had a more muscular definition of “neutrality” than the Swiss, and lately they had been taking “advice” from the KGB about their Chechen refugee problem.
It wasn’t out of the question that they had also been taking “advice” from the KGB about a troublesome CIA officer named Micah Dalton. Well, there was only one reliable way to find the answers to all these questions, and that was to draw these unknown watchers out.
To do that, he had to move.
So he moved.
CLASSIFIED UMBRA EYES DIAL
INTERNAL AUDIT COMMITTEE
File 92r: DALTON, MICAH
Service ID: REDACTED
Preliminary logs from BDS/WEIN have been entered as STET. Committee concurs with BDS After-Action Report assessment that DALTON detected the OSE Surveillance Team almost immediately after reaching the exit of the Schottentor station and that DALTON then commenced aggressive CS in an attempt to draw out and identify the members of the OSE/UD team assigned to contain and monitor him.
There are conflicting reports concerning the reasons for the establishment of an OSE Overwatch operation on DALTON, although preliminary investigation suggests that it was done on behalf of an OGO (Other Governmental Organization) the identity of which must at some point be made part of this record.
The purpose of Dalton’s visit to Vienna is unknown as of this writing, but it is a matter of record that he was traveling undeclared and in a private capacity, and was in no way charged with legitimate Agency matters, which, in view of the subsequent deaths and injuries that took place, allows for the argument to be made that there can be no official Agency liability for the actions of a private American citizen abroad.
PARTIAL/INTERIM/ report continues.
MARIAH VALE/OD/DD/EXECUTIVE SECRETARIAT
Dalton walked slowly north along Währinger Strasse, crossing into the edge of Sigmund Freud Park, making a long lazy loop through the area, scanning the darker places, watching the people around him, checking out the cars and buses, the dim forms of people half seen in the evening shadows. Since the assumption was that he was already being watched, there was no reason to be tricksy about his countersurveillance tactics, no point ducking into alleyways or changing direction sharply, trying to force a watcher to react, to look sharply away, to suddenly find the window of a closed shop utterly fascinating. He wasn’t interested in losing these watchers; he wanted to isolate and identify them, establish the size, shape, and professionalism of the unit.
Nor was it worth trying to convince these people—whoever they were—that he wasn’t worth watching; that decision had obviously already been made. He had to assume there’d be a box team on the street already, probably at least eight people, more likely twelve.
One person would have the Eye—have Dalton in direct line of sight. Usually this person would be behind him, on foot, probably no farther back than thirty yards. There’d be a backup watcher another twenty yards behind the Eye, ready to overtake and step into the Eye position if the first watcher felt he was closing up too tight or if Dalton did anything that might compromise the Eye. And there’d be a third watcher across the street, moving in the same direction as he was, probably one of those ordinary-looking people over there who were already level with Dalton right now.
The Eye would be in radio contact with the mobile units—very likely unremarkable sedans—always with four doors, since the “box team” members would be constantly switching in and out of the