Almaty, Kazakhstan, 1998. Russia was in the depths of a depression as the economy essentially collapsed after the fall of communism and the country was forced to rebuild itself in a climate of austerity. Among the worst hit by the downturn was the Red Army. Already underpaid under com- munism, getting paid at all had become problematic. Morale was atrocious and alcoholism was rampart. The problems extended beyond the rank and file to the officer corps, whose future and pensions seemed precarious. It was an invitation to corruption, and the military was selling off its equipment in “midnight surplus” sales with increasing frequency. Kazakhstan was an ethnic potpourri, with Muslims dominating. It was also a very large, new country, the world’s ninth largest in area, with several major Russian military bases, including ICBM sites. There was a power vacuum as various groups vied with one another to replace the collapsing Russian leadership. In that chaotic setting, political and military controls were tenuous, at best. Islamic extremists flooded into the country seeking arms deals, especially for nuclear weapons. The CIA got wind of such a sale and sent in a covert operations team to derail it, hopefully with- out creating a problem for already delicate and complex relations among the US, Russia, and the new nation of Kazakhstan. The team had four members: Jack Hobson, the team leader; Barry Col- field, a technical specialist; Amir Farandi, a local asset who originally got wind of the deal; and Marta Stern, who spoke Russian and Arabic and had earned a solid reputation in covert ops. As it happened, Hobson and Stern had maneuvered to be on the mission together because they were lovers, despite contrary Agency policy. G. B. Shaw and Oscar Wilde would have agreed that such stupidity was an example of youth being wasted on the young. The team was successful in getting close to the deal, to the point of fixing a tracker to the truck that would carry the warheads. The tracker “painted” the truck for a cruise missile that dispatched the vehicle, the warheads, and several terrorists in a remote area of the country as they were head- ing to Afghanistan. The only problem was the very slightly heightened radioactivity over several hundred square miles of deserted desert landscape. The team remained in Almaty to spread some disinformation on back channels, to the effect that the Red Army general selling the warheads had a change of heart about putting the warheads into the wrong hands -- after taking their money. That the terrorists might seek revenge was viewed as a bonus, since it would preclude the general selling off any more goodies. Their job was essentially finished and Hobson called a meeting that would be their last before leaving the country. There were details to resolve, such as the disposal of weapons and explosives they hadn’t needed. The meeting was to be held in the flat Hobson and Stern had rented on the second floor of a two-story residential building in a middle class section of town. The first inkling Hobson and Stern had of a problem was a commotion in front of the building. There were shouts followed by gunshots. Colfield and Farandi had walked into the middle of a group of ten terrorists who were about to storm the building -- the mission had been blown somehow. Colfield, Farandi, and one terrorist were killed and two terrorists were seriously wounded. The remaining seven terrorists stormed the building, four via the front entrance and three via the rear. Hobson and Stern reacted quickly. Hobson grabbed an MP-5 and went to the apartment door to cover the stairs and hallway while Marta jammed a detonator and igniter cord into a Semtex block, lit the igniter cord, and threw it onto the pile of their already packed supplies. She picked up an MP-5, hurried to the door, and nodded to Hobson. He tossed a grenade down the front stairs and they both ran for the rear stairs. There were yells and the sounds of panicked scrambling from the front stairwell until the grenade went off. It caught two terrorists who couldn’t get off the stairs, but it went off before it got to the bottom because of its bouncing and rolling down the stairs. The remaining two terrorists charged up the front stairs again a few seconds later. When Hobson and Stern got to the rear stairwell, they saw three terrorists hesitating on the landing below after hearing the explosion and screaming from the front of the building. Two terrorists had AK-47s and the third had an RPG launcher. Hobson thought, what kind of idiot thinks he is going to use an RPG inside a building? Just then, the Semtex went off in the flat, taking most of the front of the house and the two terror- ists on the front stairs with it. The explosion was deafening and both Hobson and Stern were thrown against the walls of the upper stairwell landing. What remained of the floor started to tilt down towards the front street and a cloud of plaster dust rolled down the hallway towards them, driven by the blast heat. The noise and concussion were not so bad for the terrorists on the landing below, but it had still disoriented them. Hobson and Stern recovered faster, driven by better train- ing and more experience. They sprayed the three men on the landing with three-round bursts from their MP-5s. The RPG launcher was armed and its dying owner squeezed the trigger as a reflex. Fortunately, the RPG flew between Hobson and Stern and went through the wall behind them before exploding in the room beyond. The wall saved them from the brunt of the explosion.