Chapter Twenty-Seven
Monday, March 14, 1988
Islamabad
Someone brought two bottles of champagne and a tray of glasses into the CIA secure meeting room, and a plastic model of an Mi-24 helicopter appeared on the table.
But Johnson wasn’t in the mood for celebrating. Yes, he had played the key role in securing a Hind helicopter for the technical teams back at Langley to crawl over and suck out every last drop of Russian know-how. With President Zia’s approval, the remains of the chopper were being dismantled and collected by a US transport aircraft and, as hoped, the weaponry, the cockpit, and the core technology all had remained intact. It was a highly valuable prize.
Watson had already received a congratulatory cable from Director Meyer, according to Alec Jameson, although so far there
