"Brown, Dale - Patrick 2 - Day of the Cheetah" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brown Dale)

duplicate the subject's every mood or segment of his person-
ality, so the clones were trained to fit in, to adapt, to take
control of their situations. If they did not perfectly match, they
were to change the environment around themselves. The cl one
would, it was hoped, create the new norm and thereby achieve
a more viable match-up.
After a suitable waiting period to allow the new mole to
acclimate himself with his new surroundings, he would b e di-
rected by Moscow headquarters to begin collecting informa-
tion, to maneuver closer to the seat of power in government or
industry, to influence events in favor of the Soviet Union or it
allies. In an emergency the mole could be used to assist o ther
agents, collect or borrow funds, even carry out search-and-
destroy missions or assassinations. Unlike informers, traitors,
bribery victims or embassy employees, these "native citizens"
were always to be immune to suspicion. They could pass the
most exhaustive background investigation-fingerprints, if nec-
essary, even surgically matched.

Perhaps only a handful of these super-moles could be turned
loose in a year. The training was exhaustive and exhausti
ng;
many Soviet students, even though they learned English well
and knew a good deal of "American," could not sufficiently
adapt themselves to the very strange American culture and be
a reliable espionage agent as well. And even with the appar-
ently perfect student, there was no way of knowing what would
happen to the intended target. Targets were selected for their
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 1 1
accessibility as well as their potential value, but over the years
there was no way to guarantee a useful match. Goals changed,
opportunities came and went, minds changed, paths crossed.
An individual who was perceived as the next President of the
United States could turn out to be a corrupt congressman; a
candidate-target discarded from consideration could turn out to
be a future Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
The target Ken James-the American Ken James-would
never have been considered only a few short years earlier: He
was the son of a psychotic Vietnam veteran; he grew up in a
fragmented childhood punctuated by a devastating family di-
saster; the family was split apart. The boy himself was a loner,
unpopular and remote, anti-social.
But things changed. The loner turned out to be a boy genius.
The father disappeared from sight and was presumed dead. The
mother married a wealthy multinational corporate president,
and both the stepfather and mother were candidates for politi-
cal office by election or appointment. The obscure boy was
suddenly a prime candidate for "cloning." Still a loner, vir-
tually ignored by his jet-setting parents, he was nonetheless
being educated and groomed for a public life in government-