They had one too many divers. They had selected eight men and one woman, and the woman was unable to dive with a rebreather. This made her the weak link, the General and the Priest agreed. She needed to go. The Colonel wasn’t so sure. Yes, her participation would add a layer of technical complexity. She would be slower and burdened with more equipment. She would need more bottles for each dive […]
She had leadership qualities. He wasn’t sure if a sudden crisis would sap the motivation of the rest of the crew but something told him she would carry on in the face of any adversity. She was in her late 30s: feisty, funny, good-humored. On her resume she described herself as kind and happy. These were not the qualities of a person the Colonel would typically work with […]
Most of all he noted a trait in her that was rare in any of the operatives or proxies he’d worked with. He drilled his agents until they had a mechanical routine, because routine helps suppress fear when things go wrong during a clandestine operation. But the female diver didn’t suppress her fear. She was unafraid […]
The General re-watched her interview videos. He noticed one particularly intriguing exchange. In the footage, the Colonel was taking notes and occasionally reading out questions to her. After a while she became impatient: “Who is writing these questions for you?”, she asked. The Colonel looked up from his notes, surprised by the question. “Who is your superior officer? Is he the one writing you the questions? I want to speak to him”, she demanded.
The General leaned back in his chair. She does have leadership qualities, he thought. She’s very strong-willed. No one from the group thought to question the authority of the recruiter. No one, except her. And she not only challenged her superior, even before she was given a task, but she also wanted to go over his head. Her instinct was not to fit in, to become part of a team, but to test the limits of authority.
Pancevski, Bojan. The Nord Stream Conspiracy: The Inside Story of the Explosions That Shook the World. Audiobook. Chapter 6.2. “The Divers: Cosmonauts of the Ocean” 15:50- 19:55
