Chapter 1

This is the first chapter in the Project: Eldest Son book. It follows Dominic and his team across Europe who has been recruited and sheep dipped by the CIA to follow terrorist money trails to wherever it might lead them. Talitha and Denise are the protagonists in this chapter and the rest are playing minor roles. But I included their cover names to alleviate the guesswork of who’s who. As more characters come into play, I’ll include their cover names also. At the end of this chapter is a glossary of terms...

Samara Yelizabeta Ivanov- Talitha

Helena Wagner- Denise

Kolya Orlov started to awaken after being unconscious for who knows how long. He tried to move around, but his arms wouldn’t move. As his vision started to clear he noticed he was in a small room and that there was a woman sitting across from him and a very tall man standing behind her to his left. He noticed that the man was wearing one of those masks like you see in that Call of Duty game. Orlov’s vision finally cleared up and he looked up at the wall to see that the clock says 16:00. “Where am I?” He asked in Russian. “Who are you? Why have you brought me here?” Kolya finally realized that he was completely nude. He tried to jerk back to inspect himself but couldn’t because his wrists and arms were strapped to the table, and he couldn’t move them. He saw that they had strapped him at the wrists and just below his elbow. He tried to stand up, but he realized he was kneeling in front of the table and his legs were individually strapped down to the platform he was on. Shifting his body some, he tried to get free, but the straps held him in place. “Release me, I have done nothing wrong.” He demanded. The woman just sat across the table from him and just stared at him.

Kolya Orlov checked the clock on the wall again and it said 16:05 now. “Great, five minutes gone.” he thought to himself, He tried to think back to what happened to him. He remembered leaving the bank and going down the street to a cafe that he has lunch at quite often. He had been reading the paper and then was bumped from behind. He turned around to see who had bumped him, and it was a blond French woman. At least he thinks she was a French woman because that’s what she was speaking. She apologized and walked off down the street. Kolya remembered taking a drink of his tea and picking his paper back up. And then he woke up here. “Where is here? How long was I asleep? Who are these people?” He asked himself.

“Why am I naked and where are my clothes? That suit cost me more than a month’s pay. If you damage it, I will be very angry.” He said with some authority in his voice. The woman just sat and stared at him and said nothing. “I ask you again, who are you people and what do you want? If you want money, you are going to be disappointed. I am not a wealthy man.” Still nothing from the woman. The man shifted position from Kolya’s left to the right side and resumed his stance, not saying a word.

Changing languages, he started speaking French. “Maybe you speak French like that girl did to me when she bumped me.” He thought for a second and then it hit him. “This was a set up with her. She got my attention and you drugged and kidnapped me. Very good, so tell me what you want.” Still nothing from the woman or the man. “If you have taken me to France, you have kidnapped a Russian citizen and I want to talk to my embassy, now.” He asked.

He changed over to English. “Why am I here? I have done nothing to you. Why have you taken my clothes and why am I bound in this manner?” He asked. “You have NO right to keep me here.” He said getting more frustrated. “You can say nothing? You just sit there looking at me like you are studying me?” Thinking again that he understood what was happening, he started talking again. “Ok, I think I understand now. You are a stripper, and you are here to dance for me. Well, thank you, but you are not my type. I prefer my strippers to be redheads and MUCH younger than you.” He added that last line about the age to see if he could get some kind of reaction out of her or the man. But they remained stoic and just watched him.

Staying with English, he started to talk about the weather. “It was cold as hell last night and my wife may as well have well been up my ass she was holding on to me so tight. You see the building where I live is taking their time getting the heating system replaced because the Americans have an embargo against the heating and cooling oil Russians use. I love my wife to death, but her feet could make the temperature at the north pole even colder.” He said laughing. “She came to bed last week after talking with her mother for 2 hours. And before you ask, I have no idea what she would talk to her mother about for two hours. The woman lives in a dacha outside of Poltava in the Ukraine. Her current husband is rather well off from the oil market and he had made her life more comfortable. So anyway, she comes to bed and puts her feet against my legs. I wake up yelling thinking that I am in the ocean.” He finished his story with a smile, but again, the woman and the man are stoic and have not moved or said anything.

He sits there and dwells on his situation for a while and then decides to start talking again. “So, forget about my wife. Do you like football?” He asks the woman. “Spartak Moscow is my team. I remember my father, brothers, and I went to see them play as a boy when it was still the Soviet Union. I remember Valery Shmarov kicking the winning goal against Dynamo Kylv. Gorbachev was in his box watching and jumped-up clapping after the kick went in the goal.” Orlov had a faraway look in his eyes and a smirk on his face at that memory. Again, the woman said nothing and just sat and watched him.

“Football is not your thing, that is fine. I take my boys to see the Kontinental Hockey League. My work gets free tickets quite often and since none of the employees really use them, I do. Do you have a team?” He asked looking at the woman and the man. “My boys always cheer for Spartak Moscow. I took them to meet Dimitri Kalinin 4 years ago and they got their jerseys signed by him. They are so proud of them We had them framed and they are hanging on the wall in their bedroom. Myself, I’m a CSKA Moscow fan. I remember as a boy, hearing how they would beat the NHL teams in your country. I felt so proud when I would listen to the games when they were broadcast over Radio Moscow. I hate to ask, but could I sit in a chair or something that would get me off my knees? I’m starting to get a bit uncomfortable like this...” Again, the woman and the man said nothing and didn’t move.

“I like what you have done with this room. It is a cornucopia of gray colors with a very well-done gray outline. But I think it would look better with a crown molding around the ceiling. You never know how the real estate market is going to be down the line. And if you’re interested, I have a friend in my building that does interior decoration and I’m sure I could get her to give you a good rate on some wallpaper and maybe some other color than gray.” Kolya said trying to be funny. But they both just kept staring at him.

“Ok, you have been looking at me for...” He checks the clock and it says 1615, “a few minutes now. If you are not going to talk, then I am not going to talk either. I will just stare back at you until you talk.” Kolya says defiantly. He sat there trying to think of something he might have done to someone to get him into this predicament. He lays his head on the table and exhales. Still not coming up with anything, he just lets his mind drift. He heard movement so he picked his head up and looked. The man has walked over to the woman and leaned over. She was whispering something to him. Kolya watched as he stood up and started to circle the table. He didn’t do anything but look at him and walk.

Initially he started walking clockwise. But after a few times around the table, he’d change up and walk counterclockwise. Kolya was perplexed. On one hand he remembers having lunch at the cafe. At the same time, there is no way that this could be happening to a sane man. “Maybe I’m passed out or in a coma?” he ponders to himself. He looks at the woman and she still hasn’t moved and is just staring at him. My knees are really starting to hurt, can I have a pillow or some kind of pad to put under them?”

Suddenly, he sees movement where the man is walking. He reaches behind his back and pulls out what looks to be a small black cylinder about eight inches long. He snaps his wrist and then he realizes what it is. The man has extended an ASP baton like the Moscow police carry on their belts. The man continues to circle the table. He’s started to change directions after two laps around the room now. The man in the mask started swinging it back and forth as he walked around the table. He looked at the clock again and it said 18:00. Wow, he’d been here for over two hours now. It didn’t feel like two hours, but since he really had no idea how long he was asleep, he couldn’t make a very informed guess.

He felt a breeze as the man swung his baton close to Kolya’s shoulder. “Hey, watch out! You almost hit me with that!” He said with an annoyed tone. “Listen, I have no idea why I am here. Maybe you could tell me what you want, and I can tell you if I have it.” He suggested. Still nothing from the woman, and the man in the mask just kept circling and swinging the baton. He decided that he was going to act important and try to make them think he was important.

“Just so you know, I have friends that are probably out looking for me and they are not the kind that you want to upset. If you let me go now, I will make sure that nothing happens to you.” Kolya said trying to muster up the confidence he needed to sell this to his captors. “My friends have a very long reach and can find almost anyone when they want to.” Still the woman said nothing, and the man kept circling the table and swinging the baton.

Suddenly he felt the baton tap his shoulder on the deltoid muscle. “Ok this is not going well, I need to try again.” he thought to himself.

“Ok, you just assaulted me with your baton. My friends are very unforgiving when their people are harmed in any way.” He said to the man as he walked behind the woman. She just sat there with her legs crossed with her hands resting on her legs. She didn’t move. She stared at him with no emotion in her face. The man walked behind him again only this time he tapped him on the same muscle but the other shoulder.

“I really do not know what you want. How can I make you understand that I do not know anything?” He said raising his voice. “If you do not talk to me, I cannot answer your questions.” The man paused for a second and tapped him on the wrist this time. Kolya flinched when he did it. He tapped him this time instead of touching him. He felt the difference in the force being used between his shoulders and wrist. His mind starts to race about thoughts of what might happen to him. He wonders what else they have planned for him besides this.

“I swear to you that I have no idea who you are or much less what you want.” He says with a little panic in his voice. “I would tell you what you want to know, but you will not talk to me.” He said as he looked at the woman. The man with the baton taps him on the trapezius muscle and he flinches feeling the touch of the baton on his neck.

Kolya was now in full panic mode, and he has no idea who the people were much less what they wanted from him. Finally, the woman moved. She pulled her chair closer to the table, interlaced her fingers and put them on the table. “What is your name and what do you do at the Bank of Russia?” She asked him with a very thick German accent.

Finally feeling like he had a little bit of control, he lied about working at the bank. “Sorry, I think you have my confused with someone else. I do not work at a bank.” he says confident that she’ll believe him.

She looks at the man with the man with the baton and he tapped his collar bone significantly harder than he did his wrist. He’s back to panic mode now and not knowing what he should do. “You are lying to me. What is your name and what do you do at the bank?” She asks him again.

“Look, I do not work at a bank, I am Pyotr Strinkov and I work for the people I told you about earlier.” He said to the woman. “Also, I would get a chair for me to sit in if I were you. I am not the man to mess around with.” She looks at the man again and he brings the baton down harder on the other collar bone. He cried out in pain. The force of the strike wasn’t enough to break it, but Kolya knew he’d been hit, and it hurt.

“My name is Kolya Orlov. I am the assistant accounts manager for the main branch of the Central Bank of Russia. I’ll tell you what you want to know, just please do not hurt me.” He told the woman.

“Thank you Kolya. If you tell the truth this will go much easier for you.” She said to him. The woman reaches under the table and hands the masked man a bottle of water. He opened it and held it to Kolya’s mouth so he could take a small drink. The masked man jerked the bottle away from him after he had only taken a sip or water.

“Please, I am very thirsty, may I have more water? I have been here for...” he looked at the clock and it said 1730. “over 90 minutes, and I am thirsty.” Kolya asked. The masked man resumed his path walking around the table and the woman pushed her chair away from the table and took her previous position of just staring at him.

He felt the baton on his shoulder again, but this time it poked him in the back just to the left of the spine. He arched his back thinking it would relieve some of the pressure, but the masked man just pushed harder on the baton. Kolya gritted his teeth trying to take the pain but was unsuccessful. “Please, PLEASE STOP! I’ll tell you what you want to know!” Kolya screams.

The woman raises her hand and the man in the mask steps back away from Kolya. “What is your name and what do you do at the bank?” She asks him again.

“I am Kolya Orlov and I am the assistant accounts manager for the main branch of the Central Bank of Russia.” He says to her.

“Thank you Kolya ... What does your job entail?” She asked him.

“I deal with the transfers of money that comes into the bank and I log the transfers and the routing information.” He says to her.

“Thank you Kolya.” She replied and resumed her posture and staring at him. The man in the mask hit the table next to his left arm and Kolya jumped and screamed.

“Please tell me what accounts you have access to Kolya.” The woman asks him.

“I cannot remember any specific accounts at this moment.” He says to her.

She looks at the man in the mask and he pushes the baton into his skin behind the collar bone. He drives it in and keeps going as Kolya screams in pain. The woman nods her head once and he stops. Kolya hangs his head and sobs in pain. He was trying to figure out which circle of hell he had died and gone to when he heard her talk again.

“Please tell me what accounts you have access to Kolya.” She repeats to him.

“At this moment, I cannot remember any specific account...” Kolya says. The man in the mask grabbed his left arm, lifted it up and struck him in the armpit with the end of the baton. Kolya moaned and cried in pain.

“Please tell me what accounts you have access to Kolya.” She asked. The man in the mask brought the baton down again behind his collarbone. Kolya screamed in pain again.

Breathing heavily and feeling the pain of the baton and the punch, he starts to talk. “I have access to accounts that are used by Bratva, and I also have access to accounts from people that need liquid funds for purchases or other Bratva members that want to shelter their money from the rest of the world.”

Thank you Kolya. Did you access any information from a specific account last month?” She asked him.

“I access information from many accounts through the month. My job requires me to log information of transfers and routing numbers into the bank. So, I access many accounts.” Kolya said.

“There was one specific account that I am told you accessed. I would like to know what you accessed in that account.” The woman asked him.

“Again, I cannot be specif...” was all he got out before the woman looked at the masked man and he drove the tip of the baton against his forearm and into his skin and pressed hard. Kolya screamed in pain again.

The woman once again held her hand up and he stopped. “There was one specific account that I am told you accessed. I would like to know what you accessed in that account.” The woman told Kolya again.

“The account you want to know about, I accessed the transfer date and time, the amounts that came in, and the routing numbers from where it came.” he said sobbing from the pain.

“Thank you Kolya. Do you have any friends in the FSB that you talk to or have given that information to?” She asked him.

“I have a couple of people that I have talked to from time to time, but I do not know their names. They come in and ask me for information about a certain person. I get the information for them, and they meet me at the cafe I was at, and I give it to them.” He said finally calming down enough to talk coherently.

“Thank you Kolya. Would you please tell me about the man or men that you talk to?” She asked him.

“Other than general descriptions of them, I cannot tell you much more than that.” He says to her.

She nodded her head and the man in the mask forcefully grabbed his head and pushes it to the side and shoved the baton behind his other collar bone. Kolya started screaming again in severe pain. The man in the mask stopped and again shoved it into his back in the same spot as earlier. Kolya is retching by now from all of the pain he felt. The woman nodded her head again and the masked man stopped

“Kolya, I told you before that telling me the truth would be better than lying to me. You have had a small sample of what we will do if you lie to us. So, I am asking you to please tell me what I want to know, and this will be over much sooner. You will also feel much less pain than what you have been.” The woman coldly said to him. “I’m not a monster, but I was contracted to get information from you, and I will get it, one way or another.”

Crying and blubbering he tried to talk but couldn’t make the proper words come out of his mouth. The woman stands up from her chair and straightens her clothing and walks towards the door. She stops and looks at Kolya. “Take a few moments and compose yourself Kolya. Then we will start again.” She said. The man in the masks grabs his hair and yanked it back so he could look up. “Do you see the cameras in the ceiling? We have people watching you. Try to release yourself, and I promise to make your time here worse than you can imagine.” She said to him. The man slammed the baton on the floor to collapse it and put back into his belt. The man in the mask opened the door for the woman and they both walked out. Kolya is shaking in fear about what is to come, but he tries his best to calm down.

The woman and the man walk across the hallway to another room. Walking in, Denise and Dominic see Laura sitting behind a desk watching four different camera feeds from the interrogation room. “You obviously didn’t put any real force behind that strike to his Brachial Radialis, did you?” Laura asked.

“No, he didn’t, I told him not to. You’d be surprised what the brain will tell you about your body when large amounts of stress and adrenaline are involved. I’m not a sadist, but this guy is a weasel anyway. After I read the file on this guy, he kind of deserves it.” Denise told them.

Dom took 2 regular and one diet coke from the minifridge. He handed the diet to Denise and one of the regulars to Laura. When Dominick opened his can, he had a thought. “He’s answering to one or two FSB assholes?” He asked Denise. “He said he’s talked to two men.”

“I’ll push him farther after we go back in there for information on the other guy. Oh, and take this with you this time.” She said to him as she tossed him a taser.

“Not playing around, are you?” He asked her.

“Nope.” She replied. “This is the asshole that had a direct influence on people coming after what family I have left, and I don’t play when it comes to them.”

“By the way...” Laura asked, “Is something wrong with the clock in the interrogation room?”

“No, why?” Denise asked.

“It says 1830 on it and my watch says it’s almost 2200.”

“Oh, that’s a thing I picked up from Tali a few years ago. It gives the illusion that a short amount of time has passed and they have lots of time left.” Denise pointed back to the interrogation room. It works well with this kind of thing.”

Laura smiled, shook her head, and spoke up as she looked at the camera in the conference room two doors over. “Tali is down the hall with the real Pyotr Strinkov and the bank CFO, they arrived right after he started talking about what he does at the bank. Suffice it to say, neither are happy that confidential information was leaked. Tali told me to tell you to please come down to see her for a few minutes when you have the time.”

Denise looks at Dominic and in a German accent said “Let us go see Samara and her guests.”

Dom smiles, shakes his head, and says, “You’re having WAY too much fun with this.” The three of them shared a laugh. “By the way, what are we doing with the assclown we’re beating on?”

“I think that Tali’s guests might want to have a say in that outcome.” Laura pointed out.

Denise thought for a second. “We’ll pump the buttpirate for all he’s got and then let them decide what to do with him.” She offered up.

“Sounds like a plan to me.” Dom said. Laura was nodding her head in agreement. “Let’s not keep Pyotr and Samara waiting then.” He said as he opened the door for Denise.

Denise walked down the hall with Dominic following her. Talitha, under the guise of Samara, had bought this office complex east of Warsaw a few years back. Denise had set up shop here for Project Eldest Son. The building had cameras in every room except for the communications room and team’s bed and bathrooms. There were also cameras that covered every square inch of the grounds surrounding the building and all three roads leading in.

They stopped in front of the door where Talitha was waiting for them. Denise took a moment to get back into character before Dom opened the door. Taking a deep breath, she nodded her head and Dom opened the door. The men stood up as she walked in with Dom following her.

“Helena, thank you for joining us. I would like to introduce you to Pyotr Strinkov and the CFO for the Central Bank of Russia Alexei Kalashnik.” Samara said in English.

Pytor walked over and offered his hand. “Samara told me you were capable, but not that you are so beautiful. My wife is German and I can say that you would come close to being as beautiful as her.” He said in a very thick Russian accent.

“The pleasure is mine Pyotr. I doubt that you would remember, but I worked for your boss Yvgeni Molchalin 3 years ago. You had a problem with a certain Swedish merchant and him not wanting to deliver your property on time.” She said to the Russian,