Target 5 by Colin Forbes Page B

midnight. Security man Marov found dead on the ice. Search parties have been sent out. Please advise. Minsky.
    It took Papanin less than a minute to scribble a reply in his own hand which Petrov rushed to the signals room. Send all available helicopters further west than Gorov can have gone. Then sweep back towards North Pole if. Report immediately any signs of American activity near Target-5. Papanin.
    He ordered Kramer to contact Murmansk, to check that the Bison bomber was ready for instant departure, to con firm with Leningrad airport that a plane was standing by, to signal trawler fleet k49 and the Revolution, requesting information on any American activity in the area, to signal the helicopter carrier Gorki asking for an immediate check on the present position of the American icebreaker Elroy.
    He phoned General Boris Syrtov, chief of Special Security in Moscow, not caring whether he dragged him from his bed at 5.30 am, but Syrtov had been on the verge of calling the Siberian and the conversation opened with a battle.
    'Papanin!' Syrtov's tone was sharp. 'Murmansk tells me you have ordered an Arctic alert. It isn't true, of course?'
    'It is true, General ...'
    'Without my authority?'
    'It was a precaution .. .'
    'Brezhnev has heard about it -I have to go to the Kremlin at once.'
    'Good...'
    'What did you say?' Syrtov roared.
    'The precaution was justified,' Papanin snapped. He fired his big gun. 'Michael Gorov has fled across the ice ... He's taking more than his brains to the Americans. I've just found out he spent two hours inside the security room while I was away in Moscow - I think he photographed the Catherine charts. He's taking them a blueprint of our entire underwater system.'
    Syrtov's anger collapsed, was replaced by chronic anxiety. He asked what resources Papanin needed - and the answer staggered him.
    'Personal control of the carrier Gorki, trawler fleet k49, and the research ship Revolution . ..'
    'You know that's unprecedented.'
    'It's an unprecedented situation. The First Secretary can sanction it - which is why I'm glad you're going to see him.'
    'I'll come back to you,' Syrtov said tersely. 'Meantime continue your preparations.'
    'I've made them - including ordering an alert nine hours ago without your authority, which has gained us nine hours of invaluable time ...' Papanin heard the click of the re ceiver at the Moscow end with satisfaction. He looked up as Kramer came in, eager for news. 'Pack your hot-water bottle, Kramer - we'll be in the Arctic within twenty-four hours.'

    At precisely one o'clock on Sunday morning in Washington Lemuel Dawes switched on the light over the camp bed he had set up in his office and checked the time. As usual, his internal alarm clock had woken him punctually. And he had a headache, which was hardly surprising - the heat, the lack of air and the tropical plants banked up against two walls were building an atmosphere which could only be described as nauseous. Ten minutes later Adams knocked on his door and came in.
    'No news from Helsinki,' he said grimly. 'But the plane might have been delayed - he may still get through.'
    'So we wait?'
    'We wait...'
    'Which could be a mistake.' Dawes scratched at his rumpled hair. 'But we can't do a damned thing about it. Gorov could be on the ice already, we could fly a plane into Target-5 now, but I daren't do it - if Gorov hasn't left yet any sign of unusual activity at Target-5 could alert the Russians.'
    So while Beaumont was climbing the walls at distant Curtis Field at the edge of the Greenland icecap, while Dawes waited for a signal from a man who had died forty hours earlier, Col Papanin's far-reaching preparations were gaining momentum and looked like winning him the game before it had even started.

    Leonid Brezhnev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, walked briskly into Col Papanin's office at noon on Sunday accompanied by General Boris Syrtov.
    As always, when he removed