Or, even if the flight had gone ahead as planned, what might have been the result had Powers done what he was supposed to do in the event of trouble, thereby depriving the Soviets of any evidence of American skullduggery?

skullduggery (n) : verbal misrepresentation intended to take advantage of you in some way [syn: trickery, hocus-pocus, slickness, hanky panky, jiggery-pokery] – source: What If?, p. 370