SPYING IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807500006-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: April 26, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807500006-9
?' WASHINGTON POST
.
A, &E-ILI ~CWC'99) ? 2 6 April 19 8 7
Spying in the Twilight Zone
THE SAMARKAND DIMENSION
By David Wise
Douoieoay. 3 pp. $16.95
By Rory Quirk
Y OU'VE GOT TO hand it to anyone who can
create a readable novel out of U.S.-Soviet
research into the paranormal, which is what
David Wise has done in The Samarkand Di-
mension. an arresting and engaging spy thriller in
which blind trust is no match for steely-eyed betrayal,
and unquestioning loyalty is sacrificed on the altar of
Cold War expediency.
When the United States' most advanced ICBM test
rocket inexplicably does a 180 shortly after launch and
makes a beeline for the launch site at Vandenberg Air
Force Base, the CIA literally gets some very bad
vibes, namely that the Soviets have sabotaged the pro-
ject through telekinesis-the ability to move objects
through mental concentration. The agency taps one of
its most tried and trusted agents, Markham, to pen-
etrate the Soviet parapsychology facility at Samar-
kand, deep in Soviet Central Asia: His orders are sim-
ple: Report back on the state of Soviet research into
the paranormal. And, in the event that his cover is
blown and he elects not to kill himself, he has the agen-
cy's blessing to cooperate with his captors rather than
face torture.
Markham's preparation for this dicey operation con-
sists of a crash course on the state of U.S. research
into psychokinetic experimentation at a CIA-funded
foundation in New Orleans, an experience which
sounds like something out of The Twilight Zone It's a
surreal journey into a world of experiments where doc-
uments in remote locations are accessed by psychics
through "remote viewing," thoughts are `implanted" in
unrealizing humans, and laboratory animals are zom-
bieized with doses of "psychic energy." "You've turned
a rabbit into a goddamn vegetable," notes an incred-
ulous Markham. "True," sniffs a research honcho, "but
it's a far cry from being able to zap a Soviet leader in
the Kremlin from a distance of 4,800 miles. In terms
of practical application, we have a long way to go."
Markham's time in New Orleans makes for fascinating
reading.
Less fascinating by a long shot is Markham's ardu-
ous acquisition of a new "past" borrowed from a long
dead Kansas toddler named Sam Weaver. "I don't
think I've ever been to Kansas," Markham cautions.
Rory Quirk, a Washington attorney, is a frequent con-
tributor to Book World
Soothes the CIA identity specialist: "Before you're
done, you'll think you were born there." The reader,
too. Markham's immersion into the boyhood commu-
nity of the not-so-late, unlamented Sammy is a dreary
primer on winter wheat, "Bleeding Kansas" and the
number of nanoseconds during which the Rock Island
Rocket stopped in good old Mankato, Kansas, on the
Denver-Chicago run.
AFTER this lengthy lull, Wise gets things roll-
ing as Markham/Weaver is "dangled to the
Soviets as a vulnerable, alcoholic, in-debt
American scientist with access to secret re-
search into the military and intelligence applications of
parapsychology." The KGB bites, and Markham is
whisked off to Samarkand to try to finesse his double
agent high wire act for some very skeptical Soviet in-
terrogators. When his seemingly airtight cover is un-
expectedly shredded, the Soviets start demanding
hard answers, and the whole operation unravels with
riveting grimness.
Markham's interrogation and torture are convinc-
ingly nightmarish-"Ludmilla ... grasped his forearm
in both of her hands. She twisted it up toward his neck
until he screamed, and then, quite professionally, she
broke his arm. He heard the bone snap ... "-so much
so that when a totally wasted Markham finally spills
his guts about the New Orleans experiments ("It ran
counter to everything he had believed in. But he
wasn't sure he cared anymore."), it's a relief. Until he
gets dumped on the CIA's doorstep-damaged Cold
War goods-and the agency spits him out too for fail-
ing to swallow the ostensibly optional, secret poison
pill with which he had been provided. (" 'In point of
fact,' Dickie said, 'it might have been preferable, from
an operational standpoint, you understand, if you had
availed yourself of the other option.'")
At this point, with Markham a now thoroughly dis-
illusioned and discredited spy out in the cold, Wise is
riding a winner, but he stumbles a bit in the home
stretch. It is clear that Markham's gotten the double
cross. The only questions are by whom and why. His
quest for the increasingly obvious answer to the first
question involves an interminable search at the Li-
brary of Congress. In answering the "why," Wise over-
reaches: Not enough that the Samarkand operation is a
big gainer for one side in the Cold War (a thoroughly
plausible result); the Other Side also has to begin to
totter.
Fortunately, Wise regains stride and hits the wire
with an ending which consigns Markham to a fate
where he might well wish that while Ludmilla was
breaking his arm at Samarkand, she had kept going. ^
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807500006-9