Chapter 11

Two hours after Denise had told them that they were leaving, the team was sitting at the Gettysburg Airport waiting for the gulf stream to pick them up. Hank Richards had told them to stay undercover and not conduct any operations until he could ascertain the damage that had been done by the Assistant Attorney-general. After the team had everything packed, Hank was giving Denise and Talitha some final instructions.

“Haspel was calling Director Wray as soon as she hung up with me to set up a meeting. She was NOT happy when I told her what’s going on. I think that she and director Wray are meeting with the AG tomorrow morning first thing. Bruce Schacht has already been called to the DOJ to brief him.”

Denise started to talk when he was finished. “I know you told me that you’re sending CAG to do security, but my gut tells me to cancel the tasking till we know more. I know a group of contractors that we’ll use to secure the compound. I used them a couple of times when I was Berlin station chief.”

“Who are they?” Hank asked her.

“The group is out of Paris and they’re comprised of former French Foreign Legionnaires. They’re all British and French, so they’ll blend in with the people. How are we going to hand off the information she gives us?” She asked.

“I’ve already got a handle on that. Can you get your hands on a boat?” He asked. Denise told him that they would have no problem with getting one. “The Navy is doing war games in the Mediterranean at the moment. I’m waiting to hear back from the JSOC commander about getting a fast boat to meet you offshore. I’m thinking every other night at predetermined locations in the Mediterranean. I’m also going to make sure that someone from Rota station meets and gives you secure cellphones and communications when you get there.” Hank told her.

“No problem, I’ll let Steven and Robert handle the boat and meeting the station rep.” She told him.

“Now get out of here, I have to listen to Diane talk about money for a bit before I head back to Washington.” Hank told her.

Sitting in the passenger’s seat of the SUV, Denise was making notes to herself as she listened to Robert talk to his mother. “No, mom, I promise you I’m not dodging Derrick. I really can’t get away right now.” Robert told his mom. He’d been on the phone for a good 20 minutes listening to her tell him about her new boyfriend. He had taken Robert’s mom to a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game and he’d listened to her tell him about how great of a time she’d had with him. “I’m glad you had a great time. We’ll have to go watch a Tampa Bay Lightning or Florida Panthers game in the fall.” He told her. “No, I can’t give you an idea of when I’ll be home.” He told her.

Denise took a moment, wrote a note, and handed it to Robert. He looked at it and nodded his head in agreement.

“Mom, I would love nothing more than to meet Derrick, I really would. But the team and I are at the mercy of NCIS as to where we can and can’t go ... No, I can’t tell you about what’s going on.” He told her. “Of course, I’ll meet him eventually. I have to have ‘the talk’ with his to see what his intentions are towards you are.” He told her with a smile. The whole vehicle listened to Robert’s mom laugh at what he’d said to her. “I swear to you mom, if he’s as awesome as you say he is, I’ll give him my blessing to date you, mom.” He told her. Listening to what she was saying, he let out a deep sigh and rolled his eyes. Yes mom, I promise I won’t bring any of my friends with me to intimidate him.” He said. He nodded his head yes and mouthed the words “Yes I will” to everyone in the vehicle and they all chuckled at that.

“Ask her if she’ll send us some of her brookies.” Hannah asked Robert.

“Mom, Hannah wants to know if you’ll send us some of your brookies, they’re her favorite.” He asked her. He paused as he listened to her talk. He looked up at Hannah. “She says that you’ll have to come to play for her when you can.” he told her.

She laughed hearing that. “Tell her she’s got a deal.” Hannah told Robert.

“She said she would love to, but you have to make an extra batch for her to take back to Seattle with her.” Robert said winking at Hannah. “Mom, Listen, I have to get going. I promise you that as soon as I can break away from Japan that I will. I know important it’s to you for me to meet Derrick ... Thank you for finally listening to me when I told you to find someone special and make yourself happy.” Robert told her. “Yeah mom, I’m glad ... Love you too mom.” Robert told his mom as he disconnected the call. He sat in his seat and just looked at his phone.

Petra slid her hand into his and squeezed it. “Hey, you ok?” She asked.

“Yeah. I’m just thinking about what all she gave up raising me.” He told her. “I’m glad she’s finally taking time for herself.”

Talitha reached over the seat and squeezed his shoulder. “Can I offer you some motherly insight?” She asked him.

“Sure...” he replied.

“Your mom did not sacrifice anything while you were growing up. Trust me, I know.” She told him. “Before this project started, watching Adele and Abigail grow was the most wonderful and rewarding thing in my life. They learned something new every day and it made me proud. Your mother watching you learn about life and watching you grow up into the man you are now made her happier than anything on the planet.”

Robert reached around and squeezed her hand. “Thanks, Tali...” He said quietly. He squeezed Petra’s hand and smiled at her. “So, what’s the plan now?” He asked.

“Now we wait to see how bad the leak is regarding Svetlana being alive.” Denise told him. “Other than talking to her about her activities, this is almost a vacation.”

“Is it that bad?” Laura asked her.

“Talitha can tell you how angry Hank was over it. I think there will be some very unhappy people in Washington DC when word gets around that OpSec for a covert operation was blown.” Denise replied. “I’ll be surprised if that US Attorney has a job next week.”

“Yeah, that guy was rather a large douche.” Petra said.

“I still have a hard time believing you had the straight flush when he introduced himself.” Laura told her.

“Yeah that was rather spectacular.” Robert said smiling and squeezing her hand.

In the other SUV that was waiting at the airfield, David was talking to Svetlana. They’d been pretty much quiet the whole way over. But waiting on the tarmac, Svetlana had asked someone to tell them about where they were going.

“It’s a small coastal town on the Spanish Riviera, Coma-ruga. The house actually is about 3 miles from the beach in the mountains.” Dominic told her. “When we land in Barcelona, we’re going to stay the night at a hotel there and get us some clothes to wear while you’re there.”

“Would it be possible to get some hair color, or can I go to a stylist while we’re there?” She asked.

“I don’t see a problem with it. What do you have in mind to change your hair?”

“Shoulder length cut in the back, shaved sides, with a platinum blond color.” She told him. “I’d also like to get some tattoos if possible.”

“Like henna ink type of tattoos?” Special agent Miller asked.

“No, permanent tattoos from a tattoo parlor.” She answered.

“What kind are you looking at?” Steven asked her.

“I’d like to get Victor’s and my mother’s initials on the inside of my arm to start. I want a dragon for my back, and my left arm is going to eventually have a sleeve.” Svetlana replied.

“Going punk?” Dominic asked.

“No, but I can do what I want now, and I want to cut all of this off.” She replied holding her almost waist-length red hair. “Greg loved it long and I left it like this for him. But since I’m dead and not married to him anymore...”

“Do what you want to change your looks, but why the ink?” David asked.

“Victor, my stepfather had a few tattoos from his time in the Soviet Navy and I always admired them. When I was in state school, I was ordered not to get them because they would allow me to have distinctive markings that someone might remember. And since that part of my life is over...” She said shrugging her shoulders. “Besides, Svetlana Michaels, the wife of an undersecretary would never have tattoos on her, it was beneath her station.”

David nodded his head understanding what she was saying. “Well find a place that does good work and set up a time for later in the evening or for a day when the place is closed.” He told her.

Dominic’s phone rang at that moment. “What’s up...” he said answering the call. He listened as Denise told him what they plan was. “No problem. We’ll watch for it.” He told her as he hung up. “Plane will be here in 5 minutes. We’re gonna wait till they refuel prep to leave, and she signals that they’re ready for take-off.” He told the others.

30 minutes later the gulf stream had refueled, changed out flight crews, and was in the air headed to Spain. Denise, David and Svetlana were sitting in the back away from the rest of the team. They’d continued the interview from the Raven Rock facility.

Denise had copies of the spreadsheets that Diane had wanted to know about and was listening as she explained them to her.

“May I see the spreadsheets please?” She asked. Denise handed them to her. She looked at the ten pages and then handed one back to Denise. “This is the Princip account with the five hundred thousand in it. As I told you, it is in case I have to disappear suddenly.”

Denise handed David the page so he could look at it. “Why is there never more than five hundred and fifty thousand in this account?” He asked her.

“This account is in the United States. Anything over seven hundred and fifty thousand would change my tax bracket and I would have to pay more to the IRS.” She told him.

“No, I understand the tax bracket thing. My question to you is how do you expect to live on this small amount of money?” He asked.

“You forget special agent Miller; I was schooled in the best ways to launder and hide money. My skills would be welcome with anyone that had money they wanted to hide.” She told him. “This isn’t money to live on. This is money to throw off people that will come look for me.”

“Who would come to look for you?” Denise asked.

“Greg Michaels senior would spend millions looking for me since I know everything about his financial empire if he even thought I was alive. Then you have the SVR and the GRU...” She told Denise.

“So, what are these from then?” Denise asked tapping the other spreadsheets.

“These are for my financials. I have extensive holdings in Switzerland, Germany, and Japan.” She told her.

“How did you manage to grow this much money in such a short time?” She asked Svetlana.

“Never mind how you did it, where did you get this money from?” David asked her.

“Part of the initial investment came from Sacha’s personal fund.” She said. David looked puzzled for a moment. “I stole it from Davynskov and Greg Sr.” She told him.

“How much did you take from them?” David asked.

“I started out with $2.6 million.” She told him.

Robert had walked back to the rear of the plane when he heard the word holdings. “Denise, do you need someone to translate stock market to English for you?” he asked.

“Please. She said the word ‘holdings’ and my eyes started to glaze over.” Denise told him.

Robert sat down next to Svetlana and picked up the papers. “The headings on these are different so I’m going to guess that each of these is different, either stock options or mutual funds that you’ve been with.” He said to Svetlana.

Denise held her hand up. “Wait a minute...” She said handing Robert a note pad. “Robert, take notes or use David’s voice recorder.” She said to him as she got up.

“Where are you going?” Robert asked her.

“It’s nap time for me.” She said as she walked over to one of the chairs, leaned back and pulled a blanket over her...

Back in Washington DC, Directors Haspel and Wray were walking into the DOJ building for a meeting with AG Barr about what happened with Daniel Kilpatrick. They were both not very happy that someone had pulled this sort of bureaucratic power play and possibly put lives in danger.

“Wonder what the excuse is going to be?” Director Wray asked Director Haspel.

“I’m betting on the ‘overzealous US Attorney’ angle.” She replied.

“That was my guess as well.” He told her.

“What are your thoughts about Svetlana, long term after this is over?” Wray asked her.

“It’s your call, your agents created the paper trail so it’s up to you.” She replied. “By the way, I was going to ask you how good Agent Miller is in the field. All of my people are combat veterans, so I’m not too worried. I didn’t have time to read Agent Miller’s file, so I don’t know anything about him.” She said to him.

“I’m not worried about agent Miller. He was under deep cover for 5 years with the National Socialist Movement, so he can take care of himself.” He told her.

“5 Years ... Damn.” Was all she said.

The elevator doors opened, and the attorney general’s PA met them. “Good morning, if you would follow me, the attorney general is waiting for you.” She told them.

They walked down the hallway to a conference room where Bill Barr sat in the middle of the table sending a text message to someone. They also noticed Bruce Schacht a couple of seats down from him. “Chris, Gina, come in please.” He said to them standing up to shake their hands. “Lisa, could you please let my office know I’m unavailable until they hear from me?” he asked her.

“Yes sir...” She said closing the doors as she walked out.

“Before we start, let me tell you that Bruce has brought me up to speed on what happened and who was involved. That was a masterstroke calling Dick McClelland in to mediate the handoff. He’s about as an impartial jurist as I’ve ever met.” Bill Barr told them.

“We saw something like this happening, so I called him straight away.” Director Wray told him. “But the question still stands, how did this happen and what are we going to do about it?”