Chapter 3

Names at the top, and definitions at the end. Thanks for reading.

Helena Wagner- DeniseGiselle Chevalier- Hannah
Markus
Kovalev- RobertCamila Garcia- Laura
Ishmael Suarez- Steven

Ludmilla had had a very relaxing time at the safe house with the group that rescued her. She’d tasted cooking from all four of the people from the organization. They were all excellent cooks. She was still waiting for the mysterious Helena to call and talk to her. It had been 4 days since her arrival here and she was starting to get a bit antsy to see some of the area. She’d been for a run outside the compound every morning with 2 of the security guys. They’d taken her down a trail that ran next to a creek for 3 miles. When they got back, Giselle asked if she wanted to go into town for a bit.

“I’m going to pick up some bread for dinner tonight and maybe have some coffee.” She asked her.

“Of course, let me shower quick.” She replied to her.

Forty-Five minutes later, they were sitting in a café called L’Escale in the town of Rosny sur Seine. Giselle was telling Ludmilla about Helena Wagner and her methods.

“She is not at all a bad woman to work for. She keeps her operatives protected at all times. However, if you step on another group’s feet, expect to hear about it.” She told Ludmilla.

“Hear about it how? Like she is going to give me a stern talking to, or is she going to hang me by my thumbs and beat me?” Ludmilla asked.

Giselle laughed at her question. “No, of course not. You will talk to her face to face, she will explain what happened and who you crossed.”

“What happens if someone were to do it again?” She replied.

Giselle looked her in the eye and said, “You will be turned over to the people that you crossed, and you are theirs to deal with. You get major one screw up in this organization. Reputations, as you know are everything in this line of business.”

“Forgive me if I seem too forward when I ask this. If she is looking for people like myself who do the job very well, why would I not get a couple chances?” She asked Giselle. “Sounds to me like she wants perfection?”

“Helena does not want perfection, she wants professionalism. There are very few times that you will come across a competitor. In the years that I have worked for her, I have seen maybe two others that were after the same thing as us. To be honest, after your experience in Paris, I doubt you will make the same mistake you did last time.” Giselle told her.

“How do you know, are you psychic and can see the future?” Ludmilla asked.

“Not in the least. I need only look at you. You are 30 years old and have been very successful in your business endeavors. You have dealt with unscrupulous people at almost every turn, and you have managed to stay two steps ahead of them. You were right when you said that you are a ghost. We would have had a much harder time finding you if we had not seen you in Damascus.” Giselle told her.

“I admit that I have been lucky so far.” She replied.

“Lefty Gomez was a baseball player for the Yankees in the 1930’s. He said that he would rather be lucky than good. I believe that you share his mindset.” Giselle told Ludmilla.

“How do you know about the New York Yankees?” Ludmilla asked.

“Both my mother and father live in the United States and are baseball fans. My father has a very extensive collection of baseball cards from the early years of the Yankees.” Giselle explained. “Look at it this way, perhaps it was providence that we found you in Syria three weeks ago. If we had not, you would be some place rather unpleasant.”

Ludmilla thought about that statement for a moment. “Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful you came when you did. But I’ve been alone for so long that I am having a problem adjusting to being around people in more than a social setting.”

“I completely understand. My previous life was like that. I started off doing something I liked, but I was pretty much on my own unless I needed someone to assist, or I had to assist someone. When Helena recruited me that changed. There were 5 of us working for Helena in the beginning.” Giselle told Ludmilla.

“As a person what is she like?” Ludmilla asked.

“She is about as no nonsense as you can get. She is meticulous and can plan anything down to the most minor detail if she needs to. But she is not a micromanager in the least. If she tasks you with something, she will stay hands off unless you need help. If you need support, she will get it for you as fast as she can.” Giselle told her. “I do need to be honest with you about something. Helena views her efforts on your behalf as an investment.” She told her.

“And she will want a return on her investment.” Ludmilla said as she watched Giselle nod her head. “When you say she will get you support, what kind of support?” Ludmilla asked.

“Whatever you need to get the job done.” She told her.

“I remember you telling me something about her loyalty to her employees. How loyal is she?” Ludmilla asked.

“Yuri Prostakov is a perfect example.” Giselle told her. “He had paid a bank employee to give him sensitive information about an account belonging to a longtime client and good friend of Helena’s. She had the employee detained and she personally questioned him for more than 8 hours about the information he had given out.”

“I know about all of that. Yuri told me that he needed me to find him information about a group of Americans.” She told Giselle.

“That makes sense with everything we know so far.” Giselle said quietly.

“Everything you know so far?” Ludmilla asked.

“If Helena wants you to know what it is, she will tell you. It is not my information to give.” Giselle said. “However, I can tell you something that you do not know about that whole situation. Do you know what the Bratva is?” She asked Ludmilla.

“The Russian mafia, I know what it is, yes. I have done some small work for them when I started out.” Ludmilla told her.

“She is on a first name basis with more than a couple Pakhans and Sovietniks in their world.” Giselle told her.

At that point, Ludmilla’s phone rang. She looked to see who it was, but the number was blocked. She denied the call and put her phone back down.

“You probably should have answered that.” She said looking at Ludmilla with some annoyance. Giselle’s phone rang moments later. “Oui” she said answering the call. “Yes...” “Giselle looked at Ludmilla. “Yes, she is ... I will tell her.” She said as she disconnected the call. “Please answer your phone when it rings again.”

Ludmilla picked up her phone and waited for the call. She didn’t have to wait long. It rang moments later.

“Hello?” Ludmilla said.

“Good afternoon, Ludmilla, I hope you are feeling better after your ordeal?” A woman with a German accent asked her.

“I am fine, thank you. Please forgive me for not answering my phone. I usually do not answer calls with blocked numbers on them.” Ludmilla told her.

“Do not worry about it. I trust my people are taking good care of you?” Helena asked.

“Yes, they are.” She answered Helena. “Markus is an excellent cook. He made a goulash the other night that would have made my grandmother proud.”

“Good, I am glad you are enjoying the company. I would like to meet with you two nights from now. Please have Giselle take you to Marie Claire’s place and purchase some clothing appropriate for our meeting please.” She told Ludmilla.

“Where are we meeting?” Ludmilla asked.

“We are meeting at the Opera Bastille. Madame Butterfly is playing this month.” Helena told her. “2100, please be at my box. Ishmael knows where in the building it is. I look forward to talking with you Ludmilla.” She said as the call was disconnected. Ludmilla was looking a bit puzzled after she talked to Helena.

“Palais Garnier or Opera Bastille?” Giselle asked her.

“The latter.” Ludmilla replied looking at her phone with a puzzled look. “Madame Butterfly?” She asked.

“Our group has been trying to figure out why she loves the opera for almost 10 years now. Do not try and figure it out, you will only give yourself a headache trying to wrap your head around it.” Giselle told her.

The finished their drinks and walked over to the bakery next door. After picking up their order, they walked back to the red SUV and drove back to the compound. When they got out of the car, Markus was walking outside and had a manila envelope in his hands. Ludmilla walked up to him, and he handed it to her.

“Projections, earnings reports, and market history, like you asked for.” He said to her. “I also have some futures you might want to look at.”

“As long as it is not oil, I would be interested in seeing them.” She said to Markus.

Giselle shook her head and walked off before their conversation became mind numbing for her.

“How about natural gas? Both the Russians and Americans are finding more and more fields to mine?” He asked.

“I have stock in Gazprom and Exxon Mobile. I am waiting on the quarterly reports for Statoil and Total before I invest with them.” She told Markus.

“You and I should sit down and talk finance some time.” He said with a smile. “Did you make anything on Gazprom when they found the fields in the Arctic Circle last year?” He asked Ludmilla.

“Yes, I was up about 15% after everything settled.” Ludmilla told him.

“Great, just what we need, another financial genius.” Ishmael said as they walked inside.

Two days later, the group was headed into Paris to meet with Helena. Ludmilla had been taken and had some nicer clothing made for her. She wasn’t at all a fan of dresses and heels. She could count on one hand how many times in the last 5 years she’s had to get dressed up for something. She preferred casual clothing to dresses and heels.

Giselle was sitting in the back with her. Markus and Ishmael were sitting in the front looking out the windows. Giselle was playing a game on her phone.

“Is there anything I need to know about Helena before I meet her?” Ludmilla asked.

Ishmael looked in the rear-view mirror at her. “You might want to think about being completely honest with her.” He told her.

“Honest about everything?” She asked.

Markus turned around and looked at her. “We do not tolerate liars in this organization. Trust is one of our founding principles in this group.” He said to Ludmilla.

Ishmael spoke up. “Helena once spent 18 hours in a room with a man that continuously and intentionally lied to her. When she was finished, there was little left of his sanity.”

“If you do not believe anything that you have been told, please believe this. Helena will get the truth out of you. She is a human lie detector.” Giselle told her.

Ludmilla’s eyes were rather large when they finished telling her about Helena. “Are you purposely trying to scare me?” She asked.

“No, if we were trying to scare you, I’d have Markus tell you about when she went in with a direct-action team to retrieve one of our operatives in Venezuela.” She said to Ludmilla.

“She went in with them ... Like body armor, assault weapons, and the like?” She asked Markus.

“Yes.” He told her. “She leads from the front and not from the rear like most leaders.”

Ludmilla sat back and pondered what she had been told about Helena. She looked out the window for the rest of the trip.

When they got to the Opera Bastille, Ishmael drove to the valet parking, and they all exited the vehicle. Markus held his arm out to Ludmilla. She looked at it with a funny look. “This is for appearances only, do not be afraid.” He quietly told her.

“I am not. I was just thinking that it is a good thing you are very easy to look at.” She replied with a smile. Ludmilla wrapped her arm through Markus’ arm, and they walked off with Giselle and Ishmael behind them. When the group was inside, Giselle and Markus split off and Ishmael walked Ludmilla up a flight of stairs. They walked through the hallway to a door that had a very large man standing next to it. He looked at her and Ishmael.

“She’s expected.” Ishmael said to the man. He opened the door for her. She looked very nervously at the steps and the box seat where she was guessing Helena was sitting. From behind, she looked like an average woman with very dark hair. She was wearing her hair in a bun on top of her head and was dressed very well from what she could see.

She raised her hand and waved her in. Ludmilla walked down the steps to the group of four seats. She saw a one-thousand-dollar bottle of Chateau Rayas 1995 and 2 wine glasses sitting on a table in front of them. Helena was sitting in the middle seat watching Madame Butterfly. She hadn’t even turned to look at Ludmilla yet. Helena held her hand out to the seat next to her. She slowly moved in front and sat down with great trepidation.

“Do not be afraid. If I was going to harm you, I would not have kept those men from taking you.” Helena quietly said to Ludmilla. Helena stood and held her hand out. “It is my pleasure to meet you finally Ludmilla.”

She took her hand and shook it. “Thank you for saving my life. I have no doubt that I would be dead right now if not for you.” She said to Helena.

“Think nothing of it. I know a good bit about you actually. I do not know if you remember, but you and I met two years ago.” Helena told her as she poured wine into the second glass.

Ludmilla was surprised to hear that. “I apologize, I do not remember.”

Helena handed the glass to Ludmilla as she explained. “It was during the demonstrations to let Syrian refugees into Germany. I literally bumped into you as you were taking pictures of the Bundespolizei command posts. Did you have anything to do with them being firebombed three days later?” She asked.

Taking a drink of the wine, her mind went back to what they had told her on the way to the opera. “No, I am not political, and had nothing to do with that. I was there strictly as an observer. I did take some pictures of the Polizei and German security forces in case things got violent and I could sell some of the pictures to the media.” Ludmilla admitted. She looked over at Helena and saw she was looking straight into her eyes.

“Photography is a hobby for you, yes?” She asked Ludmilla.

“Yes, my father was an amateur photographer and he taught me how. Aside from mountain climbing, I love taking pictures.” Ludmilla said with a thoughtful smile.

“What is the best or your favorite picture that you have taken so far?” Helena asked.

“I slept on a mountain top in Bavaria one winter to get a picture of the sun coming up over a snow-covered valley. I think I took over one hundred pictures over 20 minutes as the sun rose into the sky.” She told Helena.

“How cold was it?” Helena asked.

“Negative 26 at 4am when I woke up.” Ludmilla said with a quiet chuckle. “I almost lost two toes on that outing.”

“Tell me about Yuri Prostakov.” She quietly asked.

“What do you want to know?”

“I would like to know how you went to work for him and if you know anything about to who he was giving the information you were going to give him.” She asked.

“I had done some small work for the Russian mob when I was first starting out. If I had to guess, that is how he found me.” She told Helena. “As for his information, I am guessing that Giselle has already told you my response when she asked me almost the same thing.” Ludmilla said.

“She did. But I am not asking you the same thing. I am asking you if you know anything about who he was going to give the information TO. I already know that you got five names for him from the US Department of Defense. I also know that one of those names is already dead.” Helena said to her. Ludmilla was stunned. She watched as Helena slowly turned her head to look her in the eye. “You will find that I know much more than you think I do Ludmilla.” She said with a predatory look in her eyes.

Ludmilla felt emotional shock like she had never felt before. She had always prided herself on being ahead of the players in the game. Now, she’s so far behind and she has no idea how to catch up. “How ... How...” was all she could get out of her mouth.

“Calm yourself, Ludmilla.” Helena said to her. “But you need to understand something. The four that are still alive are now on the island of Okinawa, in American NCIS protective custody. They are housed among over two thousand US Marines. The chances of them being extracted or killed are zero. So, if anyone approaches you regarding anything about those four, you should turn their offer of employment down.” She explained.

“How did you know about the five names?” Ludmilla asked.

“We have known about them for five years now.” She explained. “They took something that we think the Russians want back. They are, or at least were, all retired and out of the military. Were you able to get pictures of them?” Helena asked.

“No, I asked if he wanted them, and he said that he’d get them.” Ludmilla said.

Helena watched the opera for a few minutes before she spoke again. “Did Yuri ever mention anything about how they got whatever it was they took?”

“No, he only told me they are former US military. That’s how I knew where to start.” She replied.

“I’m not asking for specifics; I understand that you have your secrets. I would like to know whether you hacked the DOD database, or you have a contact there.” Helena asked looking at her.

“I used a contact that has access to that database.” She explained.

“Extraordinary...” Helena said with a smirk. “You have a contact in the American DOD. I can tell you, that was no easy feat. We have been trying for years to get someone in there.”

Ludmilla nodded her head. “It was not easy, you are right.”

“Do you have a problem with doing work for government agencies? We do contract work for numerous European governments and the United States.” Helena asked.

“The only people I will not work for are countries and people related to terrorism or Muslim extremists. Other than that, I have no problem with working for any of them.” She replied.

They sat and watched the opera for a few minutes before Helena spoke again. “I am sure that one of the people at the safe house has told you that I might want you to get me something as a sort of audition to coming to work for me.” Helena said to Ludmilla.

“Yes, Camila said something like that to me 3 days ago.” She responded.

“I want you to go to London and find two things. First, I want you to get me the name of the Russian agent that is spying on the American embassy in London. Second, I want you to tell me how many safe houses the Republican Guard has in London and where they are.” Helena told her.

“The name of the spy will be easy. The Republican Guard safe houses will not. That will take a few days to set up and execute.” Ludmilla replied to her.

“Can you give me some of the particulars of how you will go about doing it?” Helena asked.

Ludmilla thought for a moment before answering the woman. “I am going to use Prostakov’s email to get a ... I think the easiest way to explain it would be a custom back door program into the Russian embassy in London. Then I will use a trace program to follow where the emails went.”

“Can I offer you some insight?” Helena asked.

“Of course...” Ludmilla replied.

“Send an email to the SVR chief at their embassy in Prague instead of Prostokov. Feydor Legunov is his name. We have a contact that told us a Republican guard general met with him roughly six weeks ago.” She told Ludmilla.

“Thank you for that, you just made my job much easier.” She told Helena.

“Before you go, please answer me one thing.” Helena asked looking her in the eyes again. “Why do you call yourself Ludmilla Baranski and not your birth name of Petra Allen?” She asked her.

Ludmilla was even more shocked. How did she find her birth name? She’d paid 150 thousand euros when she changed her name to make sure that Petra Allen was never found. She was feeling like Helena had reached into her mind and found every little secret she had. Not knowing what to say, she kept quiet.

“I can see by your face that you were not expecting me to know about that.” Helena said staring at back the opera again. “You do not have to answer. But I wanted you to understand just how much reach my organization has. Trust is a two-way street, please do not abuse mine in you.”

Still having the shocked look on her face, she started to speak. “Your message has been received; I will not abuse your trust in me.” She said dropping the Polish accent and speaking with her true English accent.

Helena stood up and started to walk out of the opera box. Ludmilla stood and followed her. She walked out into the hallway where Giselle, Markus, and Ishmael were waiting for her. Helena’s security man was standing right behind her as she started talking.

“Our new co-worker is going to London. She is to get all the support she needs to accomplish her mission. Markus, since you and she share an interest in finance, you will accompany her to watch her back. Giselle you and Ishmael will be available if they need retrieval. Camila will take the hand off from Ludmilla and get it back to me. There is an apartment in Croydon that has been leased for a month. Please let me know if you need it longer than that. Any questions?” Helena asked. Seeing that no one spoke up, she said, “I will see you at the safe house when you are all back from London then. I would wish you good luck, but I doubt you will need it.”

Helena turned and walked back to her opera box to finish the show. The four of them turned and walked down the stairs and out of the theater. The valet drove up with the SUV and they left the area en route back to Buchelay and the safe house.

When they arrived, Markus let everyone out at the door to the house and went to park the SUV. When he got back inside, Ludmilla was sitting at the table typing away at a furious pace. Giselle was starting a fire in the fireplace; Camila and Ishmael were talking quietly in a corner about something.

Ludmilla had been typing for about an hour when Giselle spoke. “What is it that has you so focused?” She asked.

“I am assembling a program that I use for getting into high security servers and systems. It is a type of hydra. It makes random incursions into a system until it makes a backdoor with the information it gets from the incursions.” She replied.

“You have a British accent. Lancashire? Giselle asked.

“Manchester.” Ludmilla replied.

“So, I was going to ask you about your program. You don’t keep it on your laptop or a flash drive?” Giselle asked.

“No, I keep it in pieces in the cloud. That way no one can really know what it is. And the best part about it is that even if you have all the pieces of it, you will still need the encryption algorithm to assemble it.” Ludmilla said with pride.

“Something tells me that we underestimated your abilities with a computer.” She said.

“Maybe. To be honest, I am self-taught. I learned the basics and just kept adding to my skills on a computer.” She explained. “I learned iOS and C++ at University in Nottingham. Java and Python, I taught myself. After that, it was just learning to put them to use for my profession.”

You created this then?” Giselle asked.

“No, my father started it before he died. I just completed it.” She replied closing her laptop. Ludmilla stood up and stretched. When she finished, she spoke. “Do we have a plan for getting into London without notice?”

“We do. Apart from you and Markus, the three of us are going to drive up. You and he are taking the train to Calais and then the Chunnel into Britain.” Ishmael explained. “Markus is there to watch your back and protect you. Whatever your plan to get whatever Helena wants is all on you.”

“She mentioned something called a hand off...” Ludmilla asked.

“When your mission is complete, Camila will drive up, you hand off the information to her, and she immediately gets it back here. After this is finished, we are going to move to the base of operations outside Warsaw.” Giselle told her. “And yes, that includes you if you so choose.”

Satisfied with the plan, Ludmilla walked upstairs to her room to put her laptop away and got everything put together that she needed. Markus, meanwhile, made a fast and quiet phone call.

Speaking in Russian, he spoke to the woman on the phone before she spoke. “Samara, I need you to get a message to Helena. Tell her that the asset is MUCH smarter with a computer than we thought, she is using a type of hydra for London, and that she is at LEAST on par with Langley’s hackers.”

“I will take care of it.” Was all she said before she hung up.

Markus put the phone in his back pocket and walked over to the kitchen, pulled out a bottle of Hefeweizen from the refrigerator, and sat down at the table. Giselle and Camila both sat down with him. Markus finished pouring his beer into his stein about the same time Ishmael joined them with the cards and poker chips.

“Ludmilla, are you going to be long? We’re going to play a few hands of Hold’em before we leave in the morning.” Camila yelled upstairs.

“Give me some chips but deal me out the first hand, I am almost finished up here.” She yelled back.

Markus picked up a piece of paper and a pen and wrote a message so they could read it. The note read: We need to re-evaluate this operation. If she can pull this off, that means she’s capable of hacking just about anything out there. Ideas?

Ishmael took the paper from him and started to write. The note said: She’s a team member and we treat her as such. Other than the project, we have no secrets from her.

He looked up at the other three with a questioning look. They were all nodding their heads in agreement. About that time, they heard footsteps coming back downstairs. Ishmael slipped the paper into her front pants pocket as Ludmilla sat down at the table.

“Whose dealer?” She asked.

“You are. Blinds are 50 and 100.” Markus told her.

They played poker till about 0200 and then got ready to leave for London.

Markus and Ludmilla had been in London for five days now. They had spent the first 48 hours finding quiet, out of the way places that Ludmilla could use the internet. They finally decided on Black Cab coffee since it was virtually within walking distance of the American embassy. They had quickly made friends with the owners and management of the places they found. Markus was always talking finance and business with them. He was offering advice about how to maximize profits while making their money work for them. Ludmilla was talking with the owners about recipes for pastries and cakes.

The two of them sat at the coffee shop one afternoon. She was busy composing the email to the SVR chief in Prague while Markus was people watching. Ludmilla closed her laptop and looked at Markus.

“I wanted to ask you about something if I could.” Ludmilla asked him.

“I am an open book.” He replied. “By the way, I forgot to tell you earlier. I like your British accent better than the Polish one.”

She smiled and blushed a little bit. “Thank you. Your accent is not from anywhere in Russia. Where are you from originally?” She asked.

“My family is from Belarus and immigrated to the Sunny Isle area of Miami when I was 2 years old. Father was an electrician originally. He saved up enough for mother to open a small café. It is in the same spot it was in when they started it in 1983. My father died when I was 8.” He told her. “I have a house on the beach just south of the Sunny Isle area where my boat is parked.”

“What kind of boat do you have?” Ludmilla asked.

“It is a 40-foot Formula Performance.” He replied. “It has a small cabin in it in case I need to sleep on the boat.”

“I take it you sail around the Caribbean?” She asked.

“It does not sail; it is a power boat. And yes, I have been known to spend nights in various places around Caribbean.”

“Where would you be if you were home in Miami?” She asked.

“Honestly? I have no idea. When I retired from my previous life, it took me a while to get used to not planning my day out. Until I went to work for Helena, I was living day to day and enjoying life.”

“You don’t work?”

“A 40 hour a week job, no, I do not. I made enough money from the market and my investments that I can live the rest of my life helping my mom if she needs it and not have to worry about money.” He told her.

She looked at him with a curious look. “Please excuse what I am about to say. You must be worth a good bit to live in a house on the beach, have a $750 thousand boat, and not have to work.” She said to him.

“I got the boat at a police auction and did not pay nearly that much.” He said with a smile. “I did well in my previous life, and I do some financial consulting and investment planning for a few select people though.”

Not being deterred, she pushed him farther. “Ok, if you are not a criminal, what were you then?”

He thought for a moment and then spoke. “Think of me like Sheldon Cooper only with the stock market and investing. When I was in my early teens, I was looking for long term investments that would pay off when I was older. The ones that I made paid off more than I could have imagined. Apple and AT&T for example, Lockheed Martin was another long term one. So, Gazprom was the windfall that allowed me to retire.” Markus told her.