Chapter 28

“Let’s talk about the people that are trying to undermine Putin...” Krauss told him.

“I’m not giving you any names.” He told her.

“I’m not interested in their names, that’s an agency thing. I’m curious about why they’re helping you.” She told him.

Jumper sat and tried to get a read on Krauss before he spoke. “I’ll tell you a little bit about their mindset. 90% of Russia loves the capitalist society. They love being able to make money and being able to keep it after taxes. If Putin’s dreams of the Soviet Union returning are realized they’ll lose all their money and more than likely end up in a Siberian gulag when they start to protest.”

“I’ve seen pictures, that would suck.” She told him. “Can you give me an idea of where they’re placed?”

“Why are you asking me these things?” Jumper asked.

Krauss pointed to the ceiling. “The camera that’s watching us is being watched by agency personnel and they’re taking notes on what we’re talking about. I can tell with almost complete certainty that they’re VERY interested in trying to help your people in Russia. If I were a betting woman, they’re going to try and come up with something that would draw the attention AWAY from the people and put the attention on foreign powers.”

He thought about it for a moment, glanced at the camera, and then smiled. “The people that I work with the most are placed in the Russian Federal assembly. They’re on certain key committees and ministries that Putin is most involved with. Weapons, agriculture, and medical is where he has his fingers in the most.”

“Are there any of your people with Wagner?” She asked him.

“There are a few people in leadership positions and among the rank and file that keep their fingers on the pulse of Wagner.” He told her. “I can tell you that Wagner is prepping to go to Ukraine.”

“Why are they gearing up?” Krauss asked.

“Things are going to go one of two ways in Ukraine. First, the Russian forces are going to sweep the country and take it over in weeks. The other way is that the Russians are stopped cold when they get to a certain point, and it turns into a protracted war. The problem the Russians are going to have is keeping their units supplied. Their combat and armored units tend to set a pace faster than the supply chains can keep up with.”

“You think they’ll move that fast into Ukraine?” She asked.

“If you look at all modern combat strategies, you’ll see more than a few pages taken from Hitler and the third Reich. It’s not because they admire or even like the Germans. It’s because it was effective and quick to end a battle.” He told her. “Putin is making one major screw up. He’s attacking at the end of winter and the ice is going to thaw soon. That’s going to mean problems for the Russian tanks, armored vehicles, and supply trucks.”

“Lots of mud, I get it.” She told him. “You mentioned Wagner was prepping to go into Ukraine.”

“Wagner is prepping in case the latter scenario that I mentioned happens. They’ll be used as terror troops to basically slaughter any resistance by the civilian populace.”

“Do you know if any Russian special forces are on the ground in Ukraine?” Krauss asked.

“Alpha and Vympel groups have support people and limited combat personnel on the ground already helping and training the pro-Russian forces there. My contacts in the army also tell me that the 2^nd, 10^th, and 22^nd special purpose groups are prepping to deploy on the initial invasion.”

“Is the VDV going to get orders?” Krauss asked.

“They’re already practicing low lever jumps like they did when they invaded Afghanistan.”

“Why so much combat power?” She asked.

“If you look at all the combat power that Putin’s moved in the last year, NATO has done the same thing in response. He’s taken units from the southern borders of Russia and moved them closer to Poland and Finland. Between the British, Germans, French, Polish and the US, there’s more than enough combat power to worry Putin. With Ukraine, he’s after a deep-water port that he can park fleet level assets to keep NATO in check in Eastern Europe, so to speak.”

Krauss paused for a moment to think and then spoke. “They can’t rely on Turkey, can they?”

“Turkey is always vacillating about who they’ll support. It’s us one year, and the Russians the next. If Russia gets the deep-water port, the dynamic in the Black Sea, might shift in their favor.” Jumper told her. “It’s a huge chess game that Putin seems to think he’s winning at the moment. In real life, he’s setting Russia up for a fall.” Krauss looked at him for a moment in puzzlement. “The Chinese.” He told her.

“Ah ... Tell me a little bit about Russian and Chinese relations.” She asked.

He scoffed. “China will stab them in the back in less time that it took me to eat that apple.” He told her. “Jiang is wanting more territory to build his modern China and show the world that they’re better than the United States.”

“Why are you selling them information then if you can’t trust them?” She asked.

“What’s the one thing that China doesn’t want?” He asked her.

“Hindrance for them invading Taiwan, but ideally, less American influence in Asia.” She said without hesitation.

“Exactly. When Trump went to North Korea to sit down with Kim Jong Un, it put China in a very bad light. It showed that the Americans are willing to sit down and talk with an enemy to try and work differences out. In reality, it showed the Chinese that the US isn’t afraid of them and will do whatever it must to secure its territory.”

“So, this is their idea of payback.”

“Yes. But make no mistake about it. China will attempt to ‘annex’ Russian territory in payment for their help.” He told her.

“How do you...” She started to say, but then it hit her. “Xi Quan Chiang knows what the plans are.” She told him.

He just smiled. “You really did get everything off my server, didn’t you? He’ll sell any piece of information for a price, he’s VERY mercenary and loves his retirement accounts in Belize and Yemen. I’m under no illusions that Russia WILL lose land to China. How they do it will be up to Putin and Jinping.”

She stood and walked over to the door. “Be back in a couple minutes.”

“Could I ask something of you?” Jumper said to her. She nodded her head. “Some coffee and maybe an aspirin. Whoever knocked me out really gave me a case of whiplash.”

“No problem...” She said opening the door. Krauss talked to staff sergeant Wilson and asked that he get him some coffee and Tylenol. After that, she made her way to the second-floor observation room and found Hank Richards talking on the phone. She made her way over to Simone and sat down next to her. “So?

“I’m going to give you my impressions of him from a profiler’s perspective.” She said gathering her thoughts. “Jumper is a very smart intelligence operative. He’s been working at undermining his own country and if I had to guess, they have no clue he’s doing it.”

“He’s never been caught by either side?” Krauss asked.

“Yes ma’am. The fact he’s managed to get all the information out of Russia that he has, is amazing. It also speaks to how dedicated his ‘fifth column’ is to their cause. But the thing that I find amazing is that he’s still managed to hedge his answers as not to give away too much information. He’s given you a lot of where and why, but not anything regarding who and what.” She told Krauss.

“So, if you had to guess why he’s doing it?” Krauss asked.

“I stand by my ‘traumatic event’ theory.” Simone told her.

“Mike, do you stand by your thoughts regarding he’s accepted his ‘fate’?” She asked him.

“Yes director, I do, even more so now.”

“Why?”

“He’s telling you what you want to know and other than a couple times where he was trying to get a read on you, he’s not hesitating.” He told her.

Hank finished his call and sat down in another chair. “The analysts are going to delve deeper into the border regions. Haspel said that she’d headed down there first thing in the morning to see what they already have.”

“What are you thinking?” Krauss asked.

“I’m thinking that your man just filled in a bunch of missing pieces to the puzzle with his info about Putin’s fifth column.” He told her. “When you go back in there, ask him about the Wagner group leadership. Tell him he doesn’t need to tell you who it is, just ask for the mindset of the leadership and how they feel about Ukraine.”

“Can I ask why?” Krauss asked.

“Call it a personal favor that I’ll repay if needed.” He told her.

“Ok...”

At that moment, the phone rang, and Mike hit the speaker button. “Yeah Angus...”

“Simone was right. The woman’s name was Dafne Akbas. She was working for flight operations logging aircraft and crew flight hours. Her family has been working for the Americans since the base was created. She died from a hit and run in 1999. The Turkish police ruled it a homicide, but the driver never made it to trial.”

“How do you know that this fits with Jumper?” Simone asked.

“Check the internal messenger, I just emailed you everything the Air Force intelligence had on her to include some pictures I found.” He told her.

“Thanks brother.” Mike said disconnecting the call.

Simone read over the file. “She was from Tarsus and grew up there as well. She went to college and had a degree in history. Her father was an aircraft mechanic that worked on the flight line as a diagnostician. Her mother was a teacher that worked on post as a linguistics teacher for the incoming personnel. She had two brothers and a sister, all of whom went to college. She was well liked and got along with everyone. She was killed one night after leaving the base. The driver that hit her never went to trial because he was stabbed to death before he came to trial.” She scrolled down and started to look at the pictures. She stopped on a particular one. “Whoa...” She said quietly.

“Right as usual, Simone. Print that picture out and start recording again please.” Krauss said standing and walking out.

Jumper was fishing his second cup of coffee and was about to ask for a third when Krauss walked back in. He was puzzled because he couldn’t read the look on her face.

She sat down and waited for him to finish and then started talking. “Feel any better?”

“I do actually, thank you.” He told her.

“I’m curious about something, and I’m not asking for specifics. But why would you not share this with US intelligence?”

“Honestly? Because I didn’t have to.” He replied. “I’m not under any illusions that US intelligence is better than Russian, Chinese, or anyone else. You’re just different. And from the way that intel leaks from the Unites States, it would have blown my cover if I had.”

She scoffed and smiled. “I don’t disagree with you. There are times I wonder if we’re fighting the same fight that the people on capitol hill are.”

“Intelligence agencies are all the same, agendas in agendas within agendas.” He said looking at his coffee cup.

“Would you tell me about Dafne Akbas?” She asked him as she opened the page with the picture of him and Dafne sitting at a restaurant in Tarsus.

His head slowly came up and looked at the picture. He smiled and closed his eyes remembering the time he was there with her. “That picture was taken at a small café in her hometown of Tarsus. They had the best Shawarma in the area. I have that picture in a photo album at my house in the basement.” He said keeping his eyes closed.

“You obviously loved her.” Krauss said quietly.

“I still do ... There was never anyone that could replace her.” He told her.

“They caught the driver of the hit and run.” She told him.

“They did. But he was stabbed to death in jail before he could talk about who paid him.”

“You know he was paid to kill her?” Krauss asked.

“The Turkish police found five thousand dollars in a box in his closet along with a piece of paper with her car description and license tag information.” He told her.

Krauss watched as a tear escaped his eye and fell. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

He smiled, opened his eyes, and sat up. “Thanks Stephanie.” He said wiping a tear away. “So, you’ve discovered why I sold out my country.”

“We weren’t for sure, but we had a good idea.” She told him.

“Yeah, we were in love. I was planning on talking to her father and asking permission to marry her soon after that.” He told her. “I didn’t get the chance because she was killed less than a week later.”

“You’re sure it was the Russians?” She asked.

“My handler at the time told me that my mission was the priority, and not...” He made air quotation marks, “Some Turkish whore. After that I started sending out of date information or things that I knew they already had.”

“Your handler didn’t get suspicious?” She asked.

“No. I explained to him that the counterintelligence people were cracking down on people in the key areas of the command structure. He was placated.” Jumper told her.

“What happened to him?” Krauss asked.

“He had an accident swimming in the Mediterranean Sea in 2001 and drowned.” Jumper told her.

Looking at his eyes, she saw the satisfaction of his death. She didn’t have to guess how he really died. “Payback.” She said to him.

“Yup...” he said with a smirk.

“Would you tell me about her?” Krauss asked.

He thought for a second and smiled. “She loved the idea of America. She told me that I was the luckiest person in the world to be born there. I’d tell her about all the places I’ve visited, and she’d listen with such enthusiasm. She’d ask questions about sights, smells, colors, and what the people were like. She told me that she wanted to visit the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone Park if she ever got the chance to go to the United States.”

“Did you have your honeymoon planned out?” Krauss asked.

“I did. She had a BMW motorcycle that she bought and loved to ride. So, I was going to rent a pair and we’d have gone to see The Alamo, The Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore.” He said with a tear.

“Sounds like it would have been wonderful.” Krauss said with empathy in her voice. Jumper nodded his head in agreement as he smiled and closed his eyes remembering his love.

“I have to ask you about Symanski.” Kraus finally told him.

“She’s legit.” He said with closed eyes. “She is feeding information directly to the SVR senior committee in Russia. They’re trying to keep ahead of the information curve but are failing to do so because of her information.”

“She’s keeping them off balance.” Krauss states.

“Yes. Symanski is part of the reason that the Steele dossier was discredited.”

“How so?”

“Aden Schaff is a client of hers and he LOVES to run his mouth when he’s being disciplined.” Jumper said to her. “Take a flogger to him, and he’ll tell you what size and what kind of underwear his wife wears.”