THE RED CELL André Le Gallo Also by André Le Gallo: The Caliphate Satan’s Spy The Red Cell By André Le Gallo © 2021 André Le Gallo Original copyright © 2016 All Rights Reserved Published in the United States of America By D Street Books A division of Mountain Lake Press Cover design by Jutta Medina No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a data base or other retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the CIA or any other U.S. Government agency. Nothing in the contents should be construed as asserting or implying U.S. Government authentication of information or Agency endorsement of the author’s views. This material has been reviewed by the CIA to prevent the disclosure of classified information. To Cathy Everyone’s cheerleader, the co-author of my life, the center of my existence… To my parents… And to the American soldiers who liberated France. Contents FOREWORD PROLOGUE 1. Old Executive Office Building, Washington 2. Fairfax County, Virginia 3. CIA Headquarters, Langley, Virginia 4. Damascus 5. Alexandria, Virginia 6. The White House, West Wing 7. Washington 8. Larnaca, Cyprus 9. Bucharest 10. Langley 11. Brussels 12. Silicon Valley, California 13. New York 14. Mechelen, Belgium 15. Charleroi, Belgium 16. Free University of Brussels 17. Brasserie Gaillard, Brussels 18. Charleroi 19. Kristen’s Apartment 20. Waterloo, Belgium 21. Svetlana’s House 22. Iranian Safe House, Charleroi 23. Avenue Wellington 24. Aisha’s Apartment 25. The White House 26. Back at Kristen’s Apartment 27. Iranian Embassy, Brussels 28. Zaventem Airport 29. Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany 30. Grande Place, Brussels 31. The ‘Croatians’ 32. The ‘Bulgarians’ 33. Paris 34. United Nations, New York 35. Langley Redux 36. Sausalito, California 37. McLean, Virginia 38. Golden Gate Bridge 39. Tiburon, California 40. New York Redux 41. Marin Headlands 42. The White House and a Federal Building in San Francisco 43. Tiburon Compound 44. Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, California 45. Beirut 46. The Knolls, San Rafael, California 47. Golden Gate Bridge and Marin Headlands Friday, 0210 hours 0445 0500 0505 0515 0530 0530 0530 0538 0540 0540 0545 0550 0555 0600 0600 0605 0605 0610 0610 48. Rodeo Beach 49. The Oval Office AFTERWORD ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR FOREWORD The definition of an unsung hero is one you don’t know about. So you have not heard, in all probability, of this author. I have, because we shared a training course in 1963. It was no ordinary classroom yawn. It was the CIA training for future operations officers—rigorous, physically and mentally challenging, sometimes sleep deprived, and sometimes demanding the spontaneous invention of a scenario for an unfolding operation. The canvas of a would-be operations officer starts with a foreign problem or even quagmire that demands insights—covertly acquired intelligence—in order to understand the true situation, or the true intentions of an antagonist. The training scenarios attempted to prepare us to deal with people from very different cultures, on foreign lands that might be unwelcoming. We also understood we would often be alone in using our assessment skills with a foreigner whom we hoped could be convinced to be receptive to our needs. A winning, compassionate personality would help. Not to mention “think on your feet” adjustments to surprising information, or hints that a person you wanted to trust was not quite what he wanted you to believe. The thing I remember most from the first week of that training was the quality of the men and a few women who were my new colleagues. It wasn’t just that they had good educations, law or other advanced degrees, or living experience abroad. More than that, they were bright, quick-witted, admirable young Americans, all eager to serve their country. And the author of this book, André Le Gallo, was a standout. André didn’t try to be a standout. Indeed, we understood from our training it was much better NOT to be noticed. Not to call attention to our covert activities. Not to be labeled by a foreign intelligence service as “probably a CIA officer”. Better to be, or seem to be “unsung.” But André’s background was different than most of ours. And in time, I learned that his boyhood in Brittany, France included staying out of the way of and playing tricks on Nazi soldiers during World War II. He already knew a thing or two about real life deception and guile. But in training André was solid and sensible and dependable. You wanted him on your side. Then we all went off into the Cold War to, in fact, serve our country. André journeyed to Laos to lead mountain tribes as his first challenge. I went in a different direction to serve. But we were in touch—not often—over the next thirty-five years of adventure and innumerable scenarios. André became very, very good as an intelligence officer. You will have to take my word for that. But near the end of those many years, I was in a position to see some of the outstanding bits of one of his fine operations. It comes as no surprise to see another scenario, this time his third novel, from my old comrade. I’m not going to tell you anything about his story: EXCEPT that it, like a James Bond adventure, will keep you on the edge of your chair. EXCEPT that when he tells you a detail of a place in Brussels or Bucharest or Tehran, it is because he still remembers it vividly from his travels there. And EXCEPT when he describes the nasty symptoms one of his characters has suffered from the disease known as ALS, it reflects his courage in personally facing that condition. Enjoy your
