Free Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America by David Wise Page B

to my security.” The danger to Hanssen was that one or more of the three FBI sources might learn of his existence from their vantage point inside the KGB and reveal it to the FBI. The best way to eliminate that possibility was to kill them.
    As Hanssen had promised, his first package of documents arrived in the mail at Viktor Degtyar’s house in Alexandria ten days after the KGB man had received his letter. Inside were a large batch of classified intelligence documents, although not all were originals as he had said in his letter.
    At 8:35 A.M . the next morning, October 16, FBI agents routinely watching the Soviet embassy from their lookout post across the street saw Degtyar arrive for work. He was carrying a large black canvas bag which the KGB man did not normally have with him. This was duly noted and recorded, but of course the FBI agents on surveillance dutyhad no way to guess what was in the bag. The contents could just as easily have been books, a change of clothes, or Degtyar’s lunch.
    A week later, this time from New York City, Hanssen mailed another letter to Degtyar’s house. Perhaps not wanting his wife to surprise him again, Hanssen seldom wrote to the KGB in his den at home; he composed most of his letters on a laptop in his car.
    In the message to Degtyar, Hanssen, the consummate professional, was not
asking
the KGB for instructions on where they wanted to leave the $100,000 he had asked for, or where he was to stash documents in the future, or how to signal the Russians—he was
telling
them.
    The letter crisply laid out his plan:
    DROP LOCATION Please leave your package for me under the corner (nearest the street) of the wooden foot bridge located just west of the entrance to Nottoway Park.
PACKAGE PREPARATION Use a green or brown plastic trash bag and trash to cover a waterproofed package.
SIGNAL LOCATION Signal site will be the pictorial “pedestrian-crossing” signpost just west of the main Nottoway Park entrance on Old Courthouse Road. (The sign is the one nearest the bridge just mentioned.)
SIGNALS My signal to you: One vertical mark of white adhesive tape meaning I am ready to receive your package.
Your signal to me: One horizontal mark of white adhesive tape meaning drop filled.
My signal to you: One vertical mark of white adhesive tape meaning I have received your package. (Remove old tape before leaving signal.)

    After enclosing a schedule of dates and times for the signals and dead drops, Hanssen said he would acknowledge receipt of the money with his next package of documents.
    The KGB gave the dead drop site in Nottoway Park the appropriate, if unimaginative, code name PARK . It was to become Hanssen’s favorite drop site; over the next four years he used it seventeen times.
    On Saturday, November 2, less than a week after receiving Hanssen’s letter, the KGB loaded the PARK dead drop with $50,000 in cash, half of what he had requested. Because Hanssen’s motives for spying for Moscow were complex, varied, and enigmatic, among thosewho knew him in the intelligence community it became the accepted wisdom after his arrest that he had not acted for money alone, or even primarily. While that may well be true, it should be noted that $50,000—and he was to receive a great deal more—was an amount greater than his annual FBI salary at the time. Hard cash was certainly not an insignificant factor in his mix of motives, as Hanssen himself later told his FBI debriefers and the Webster commission.
    Along with the money, the KGB countered with their own arrangements for future contacts with Hanssen. In the spy trade, this schedule of meetings, drops, and dates is known as a communication plan.
    Six days later, on November 8, Cherkashin was given another letter from Hanssen, who did not, then or later, reveal his identity to the Russians. Once again the letter was mailed to Degtyar’s home in Alexandria. It was full of flattery for Cherkashin, praising “your courage and perseverance” in the