White Fox

Contents Cover Other Titles Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Prologue: June–September 1963 Part One: 22 November– 5 December 1963 Part Two: 6–7 December 1963 Part Three: 8–9 December 1963 Part Four: 9–10 December 1963 Part Five: 10–14 December 1963 Part Six: 14–17 December 1963 Part Seven: 17–19 December 1963 Part Eight: 19–20 December 1963 Part Nine: 20–22 December 1963 Author’s Note Acknowledgments About the Author Landmarks Cover Cover Title Page Contents Start Copyright Print Page List iii v vi vii 1 3 4 5 7 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 35 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 91 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 143 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 173 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 207 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 237 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 279 280 281 282 283 285 287 
 
 
 
 
 ALSO BY OWEN MATTHEWS
 Fiction
 The Black Sun Trilogy
 Black Sun
 Red Traitor
 Nonfiction
 Overreach
 Stalin’s Children
 Glorious Misadventures
 An Impeccable Spy
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 Copyright © 2023 by Owen Matthews
 All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto.
 www.doubleday.com
 DOUBLEDAY and the portrayal of an anchor with a dolphin are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
 Cover photographs: (top) Michael Kittell/Getty Match/Getty Images; (bottom) Thierry Esch/Paris Match/Getty Images; (inset) Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
 Cover design by Michael J. Windsor
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Names: Matthews, Owen, author. Title: White fox : a novel / Owen Matthews. Description: First edition. | New York : Doubleday, [2023] | Identifiers: LCCN 2022017842 (print) | LCCN 2022017843 (ebook) | ISBN 9780385543446 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780385543453 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917–1963—Assassination—Fiction. | Soviet Union. Komitet gosudarstvennoĭ bezopasnosti—Fiction. | LCGFT: Historical fiction. | Thrillers (Fiction) | Novels. Classification: LCC PR6113.A8914 W48 2023 (print) | LCC PR6113.A8914 (ebook) | DDC 823/.92—dc23/eng/20220420 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022017842 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022017843
 Ebook ISBN 9780385543453
 ep_prh_6.0_142789174_c0_r0
 
 
 
 
 
 For Ksenia, Nikita, and Theodore
 
 
 
 Contents
 
 PrologueJune–September 1963
 
 
 Part One22 November– 5 December 1963
 
 
 Part Two6–7 December 1963
 
 
 Part Three8–9 December 1963
 
 
 Part Four9–10 December 1963
 
 
 Part Five10–14 December 1963
 
 
 Part Six14–17 December 1963
 
 
 Part Seven17–19 December 1963
 
 
 Part Eight19–20 December 1963
 
 
 Part Nine20–22 December 1963
 
 
 Author’s Note
 
 
 Acknowledgments
 
 
 _142789174_
 
 
 
 PROLOGUE
 JUNE–SEPTEMBER 1963
 
 
 
 
 1
 
 VorkutLag 51 Strict Regime Penal Colony, Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR, June 1963
 In the pale twilight of an Arctic summer night, three men ran for their lives through an endless sea of knee-high shrubs and scrub grass. Far behind them a huddle of prison buildings encircled in barbed wire stood like a lighted island in the surrounding gloom. A signal rocket soared into the sky and descended slowly, casting hard black shadows in the half-light.
 High in a watchtower the penal colony’s commander focused his binoculars on the fleeing figures, ignoring the mosquitoes which swarmed in clouds around him. By his side, his second-in-command shaded his eyes against the flare light and squinted at the retreating figures.
 “Troika. Classic.” The burly officer’s voice was hoarse as rusty nails in a bucket. “Two old lags and a young kid. The cow.”
 The commandant lowered his field glasses and eyed his deputy with distaste.
 “The cow, Major Chemizov?”
 “If they don’t find food within a couple of days, they smash the kid’s head in and eat him. The cow.”
 “And where would they find food, out there in the tundra?”
 Chemizov shrugged.
 “Might find some native herders. Cut their throats, steal their food. Happened a couple of years back.”
 “Did they make it to freedom?”
 “Freedom? The dead herders’ relatives hunted them down, stripped ’em naked, and left them hog-tied in the tundra. Mosquitoes and crows ate them alive.” Chemizov peered once more at the men’s retreating figures as they shimmered and slurred into the twilight. “Range six…seven hundred meters, Comrade Colonel. We’ll lose them in the undergrowth in a minute.”
 Wearily, the commander turned to a young soldier who had been keeping his sniper rifle beaded on the fleeing men as his superiors spoke.
 “Very well,” said Colonel Alexander Vasin. “Fire at will.”
 
 2
 
 Leningrad, USSR, September 1963