Chapter 7

Thank you to Todd_d172 for allowing me to borrow a character from one of his stories.

Three days after the opening of Carnival, Gregory and Svetlana Michaels flew back to the United States after spending a long weekend in Venice. Robert and Laura walked through the door of the safe house and just laughed. Dominic started to ask what was so funny, but Laura tossed her cell phone to her and both of them walked off to their rooms.

Dominic opened the picture folder on the phone and started laughing. He tossed it to Petra and asked her to put it up on the monitor. She hooked it up and opened the gallery folder. Everyone was speechless for a minute. It was Denise that broke the silence.

“How much freakin yoga does that woman do?” She said.

Svetlana had pulled her dress up and had her right leg on Greg’s shoulder while they had sex in the rental return. They went through the pictures and saw the various positions they were using.

“We need to build a greatest hits video for Robert and Laura to show our appreciation for their efforts.” Petra said giggling.

“How many positions from the Kama Sutra do you think they can do?” Talitha asked.

“All of them?” Dominic offered up.

Robert walked back into the kitchen and grabbed a beer out of the refrigerator and sat down. “Wow talk about real life porn.” He said as he took a big drink of his beer. “They had to have a not so quickie in the car park at Marco Polo airport before they got on the plane.

Laura walked in with a bottle of tequila and a shot glass. Filling her shot glass up, she slammed it back and filled it up again. “I’ll give them kudos for stamina. They’d give the energizer bunny a run for his money.”

“Are you scarred for life now?” Denise asked her.

“No...” Laura replied slamming back another shot of Tequila. “But next time, we have to do that, we’re bringing a drone with us and letting it record and take pictures.” She shuddered as she looked at the picture of Greg and Svetlana.

“Yeah I have to agree with her. I need to bathe in hand sanitizer with steel wool at least 5 times before I’ll feel clean.” Robert said pointing to the TV.

Robert finished his beer finally and Laura put her tequila away. Denise put the contents of the flash drive up on the big monitor so they could all see the information.

“Robert, what do you see?” Talitha asked.

“The first things we’re looking at are schedules for transfers and routing information. The account numbers aren’t listed, but routing numbers are easy to track.” Robert told. The second page there is a memo explaining the...” He paused for a moment as he read the letter and then looked at Tali with surprise. “Don’t bullshit me, this was on the Svetlana’s flash drive?” Robert asked. Talitha just nodded her head.

“What is it?” Dominic asked.

“This is a memo detailing what money is coming in, where it’s going, when, and for what?” he replied with an astonished look. “Why would they put this on paper?”

“We are not sure it is genuine. We need yours and Petra’s eyes to look over the numbers, transfers, and spread sheets and give us your opinion as to their authenticity.” Talitha told him.

“We can do that.” He told her. He looked at Denise and asked, “Have you uploaded everything?”

“Almost, I’m still scanning the flash drive for the numbers. There’s a lot of data here. I did want you to look at this and tell me if it’s what I think it is.”

Robert looked at it and smiled. “This is a letter confirming that Svetlana now owns a controlling interest in...” He paused for a moment and looked up at the team. “Banco Delta Asia...” He turned and looked at Talitha. “Samara, do you have any friends in the orient?” Petra looked at Robert with a question on her face. He mouthed the word “Later” to her.

“Friends, no. But I know someone that might be able to point us in the right direction. We will need more information than this if we want her help though.” Talitha told him.

“Who is she?” Dominic asked.

“Her name is Wendy Huang and she deals in ‘discreet’ transportation. She is smarter than 98% of her competition, twice as ruthless, and has connections all over the world. Other than her master’s degree in business from Vassar, nothing is known about her. Rumors about her are that she murdered her brothers in their own casino and then had all their lieutenants killed moments after. She has spent 25 years in a business that does not forgive errors in judgement or mistakes. She’s not the kind of woman that you want to make an enemy of.” Talitha explained.

“How are you planning on approaching her?” Denise asked.

“I want to call and make sure that we’re not going to be stepping on her toes before we start looking into Svetlana’s banking connection in Macao. We also might want to see if she has any information about Svetlana herself as well. It also might be a good idea to do a face to face with her in the future. Her business might come in handy later if needed.” Talitha explained.

“You think she has connections in banking?” Petra asked.

“My guess is that she knows the players. But as far as her being as deep into banking as Samara is, I doubt it.” Talitha explained. “Still, she has to put her money somewhere.”

Back in London, MI6 was still gathering information at the safe houses. Gerald Phillips and Jonny Kasim had collected more recordings of women crying for mercy in the basement of their target house. They were getting frustrated to say the least that nothing was being done about it. They had sent more than a dozen recordings up the chain but had received no reply. They were discussing what to do next.

“Remember the memo that came out about That Iranian colonel, what was his name?” Jonny grabbed a stack of papers and found what he was looking for. “Rostamifir was his name. The report said he was wanting to teach a western woman her place. I’d bet my next month’s rent he’s there.”

“Jonny, I hear what you’re saying mate, but this is a case that no one is doing jack about it RIGHT NOW and it’s pissing me off.” Gerald told him. “How many more people have to get hurt over there before we do something about it?”

“Trust me, I know how you feel. It pisses me off also, but this is a covert op and there’s fuck all we can do about it.” He said dejectedly. “The first thing that’s going to be asked is other than the recordings, is there any other evidence that there’s maliciousness going on in the flat. To which we will say ‘no sir’ and then we’ll get sacked and sent to Gibraltar if we do something we’re not supposed to.”

“Can we see about getting another microphone on another back window?” He asked his partner. “We might be able to hear more in the basement than just the woman crying.”

“How are we going to justify it to the big cheese?” Jonny asked.

“It’s my turn to run for the baps. I’ll take the long way back and have a look at the back of the flat and see what I can see, then we’ll plan from there.” Gerald suggested.

“I can get behind that. We’ll leave a note for the night crew, explain what we believe, and for them to do the same thing.” Jonny said.

Back in Venice, Petra and Robert had spent 7 hours looking over the spread sheets and accompanying paperwork. They’d made a breakthrough about an hour ago and had seen the pattern that the Russians were using on the spreadsheet to disguise the amounts going in and where it was going. Denise and Talitha were sitting listening to them talk.

“How far back do the numbers go?” Talitha asked.

“From what we’re looking at here, at least 48 months. Svetlana should have handed this off personally instead of doing a dead drop. There’s more than enough information on here to skip the jury trial and go straight to throwing her in a deep dark hole for the rest of her life.” Petra told her.

“I take it you’ve figure out all the numbers then?” Denise asked.

“We have, but there’s a problem. I’ll let Robert tell you about it, I need some food.” She said as she walked into the kitchen.

“The problem is with their handler or accountant. Svetlana, the accountant, or whoever is running this operation, from what we can tell is skimming about 5-10% right off the top of it. No one in the Kremlin is missing it because whoever is doing the paperwork is simply hiding it in ‘operational expenses’ and doing a good job. Look at the expenses column.” Robert said. “From your experiences, how much would an operation like this spend in incidentals each month?” He asked them.

Looking at the column Robert was pointing at, Denise and Tali saw amounts starting at $25 thousand and going as high as $100 thousand.

“Even on this level, the only thing we would worry about would be paying bribes.” Talitha told him.

“Bribes, right here.” Robert said as he pointed to another column on the screen.

“Ok, then transportation or acquisitions for equipment.” Denise offered up.

He again pointed to another column on the monitor. “Next?” he replied.

“There shouldn’t be anything to the level of what you’re looking at on the spreadsheet.” Dominic said as he walked into the living area. He handed a beer to Robert and then sat down. “You could MAYBE make a case for internet costs or even cell phones for something like this, but nothing to the degree I’m seeing. Robert is right, whoever is running this operation in Moscow is cooking the books like a mother...”

“If I had to guess, the memo that was we looked at earlier regarding controlling interest in the bank was Svetlana laundering her share or all of the money that they’re skimming.” Petra said.

“Let me wrap my head around this quick. Whoever is running this operation in Moscow is skimming or has skimmed, how much?” Denise asked.

“Minimum amount total on each of the drops we’ve found on here was $250 thousand.” Petra told her sitting down on the couch with a bowl of pasta from dinner and glass of red wine. “If I had to guess, there’s also another set of books out there with more money being moved around.”

“Why would you say that?” Denise asked.

“Because you don’t buy controlling interest, even in a small Asian bank with...” Petra paused and looked at the monitor. “Fifteen million and change.”

Denise paused to look at the screen one more time and then spoke. “For the sake of argument, we’ll say Svetlana is doing the skimming. She’s skimmed at least $15 million and change. Everything she takes, goes into the operational expense column. She then takes it and launders it by buying a small Asian bank ... If you and Robert had to guess, how much WOULD it take to get controlling interest in a small Asian bank?” Denise asked as she was writing on her notebook.

Everyone including Petra looked at Robert who was busy looking at the screen and thinking. “If I had to SWAG, $75 to $100 million US just to be taken seriously.” He replied.

Denise and Talitha looked at each other knowing what the other would say at this point. It was Denise the said it out loud. “She had financial backing. Greg Michael’s family has money, but I don’t know how much.”

“There’s no way it’s that easy.” Laura said.

“Sometimes, the obvious is the truth.” Dominic replied.

Denise was taking notes as fast as they could. “Anything else we need to send up?” Denise asked. Petra and Robert shook their heads in reply. Denise turned and looked at Petra. “By the way, Hank wanted to know how you know so much about Russian server protocols.”

“Mostly because I read a lot. After Obama’s Russian sanctions in 2014, both the Chinese and Russians started to or created their own operating systems since Microsoft is controlled in the US.” Petra explained. “The funny thing about what they’re doing is that they’re using a Unix based operations system. What makes it funny is that it was developed by Bellsouth back in 1965 and is used by Apple, AT&T, HP, and a few other big names. I’m sure that the Russians copied some of the OSX that Apple uses since it’s so secure. But there are ways around everything these days.”

“Wow ... I had no idea.” Denise said with a shocked look on her face. “How robust is their OS at this point.” She asked.

“Legunov’s system was their high end, and to be honest, I was impressed by it. But the less important systems are a joke.” She said.

Denise pondered everything Petra had told her. “Since we have all of us here, let me throw something out for discussion. This Russian operation as a whole, would it be safe to say that the man running this operation is something of an amateur? My gut is telling me that he’s not a professional.” She asked.

“I’d say that he might have some experience based on his changing the numbers around and skimming the money, but for the most part, NOT a professional handler or operative.” Talitha said as she walked back into the living area and put her cell phone down. “This has the hallmarks of someone who’s been doing this for a long time and is looking for a, I think the term is, golden parachute?”

“I agree.” Dominic looked at Petra. “Can you track where the emails came from?”

“No, these were downloaded to a system and then uploaded to the flash drive.” She replied.

“I hope Steven and Hannah have had better luck than us.” Dominic said.

Thinking for a moment about Wendy Huang, Denise looked at Tali. “IF ... you have to contact Wendy, what’s the plan you want to use?”

“I’m actually contemplating two ideas. First is that Svetlana’s group defrauded a client out of ten million and we tracked it to Macao. We are looking for information about who took it and where the money went. We also want the locations of any of Svetlana’s Lieutenants in Macao, and we are being respectful of her territory before we bring in our teams.” Talitha explained.

“And the second?” Robert asked.

“Be honest with her. We’re following a money trail and it is leading to Macao. We’re contacting her to give her a warning about what we’re looking for.” Talitha told her.

“Are you sure that honesty is a good course of action?” Dominic asked.

“No, but a woman with her connections probably knows about Samara and has looked deeply into her. If I had to guess, Wendy’s lieutenants view Samara as competition, but Wendy does not since Samara has more banking connections than smuggling.” Talitha explained.

“Did you pick a place for the meet if we have to?” Denise asked.

“I was thinking Dubai, but we’d need a quiet and out of the way place to meet?” She replied.

“Can I offer a suggestion? Why not the Movenpick at Jumeirah Beach?” Robert suggested.

“Why there?” Tali asked.

“Oh, I don’t know ... Maybe because we own it?” He replied.

The whole room looked at him in shock. Again, it was Denise that broke the silence.

“How the hell do we have controlling interest in a resort in Dubai?” She asked Robert.

“We agreed that after Afghanistan, I would create and manage a slush fund for us in case one or all of us needed to disappear. I purposely left you all in the dark about most of it. We all put the initial payment forward, but I used it to buy controlling interest in that hotel.”

Petra was the one that figured it out first. “How much did you launder buying controlling interest and what did you do with the rest of the slush fund?”

“Just over $275 million US. The money we make from the resort is pure profit.” He replied. “The $75 million left over was used to buy various properties across Portugal and the southern European coastal areas. They were improved and flipped at a large profit to people looking for vacation property abroad. The property company I retained to do this is still buying and selling properties there and throughout Europe. The point I’m making here is that the money in the slush fund and everything else that comes in is completely clean.”

They looked at him and a minute. Talitha and Petra had a smile on their face like they were pleased at his efforts. Dominic was surprised, but you could tell that he was thinking about vacations. Denise, shaking her head as she listened to Robert, was shocked that he did this under her nose. When she was Berlin station chief, she had almost an entire section dedicated to monitoring monetary transactions over half a million dollars.

Laura broke the silence. “Awesome, we have a vacation spot. If you guys need anything, I’ll be downstairs talking to my brothers.” she said.

Petra looked at Talitha after Laura walked off and asked her who “Samara” is.

“Samara is my alter ego. She was created by Mossad specifically for me. She is well known in the less scrupulous community. Denise calls her a go to woman. If you want something done, moved, or taken care of quietly, she was the one you talked to.” Talitha explained to her.

“You’re a more patriotic version of Wendy then?” Petra asked.

Tali giggled hearing what Petra asked. “Yes, you could say that. The biggest difference is that Samara deals with contractors where Wendy does not.” She replied.

Back in Warsaw, Steven and Hannah were sitting watching Blazing Saddles when his phone went off telling him that he had email. Opening the email, he saw there was a link for a cloud account with his buddy’s name on it. Pausing the movie, he stood up.

“Come on, Danny came through for us.” He told Hannah.

Both of them walked back to the communication room and started looking at pictures. Shock at all the pictures that he’d sent, they started sifting through them looking at the routes through the racecourse. To say he’d been thorough would be an understatement. He’d included video of someone running the course. The runner had GPS tracking and had drawn a complete overview of the trails that they ran. There was also video footage of the gorge crossing to go with the pictures. Steven pulled up a topographical map with the race routes drawn out on it.

“Wow, this is more than I would have expected.” Hannah told Steven.

“Danny is nothing if not meticulous. When he was enlisted, his squad members hated him because he wanted perfection from them.” Steven told her. “But all his OCD-ness paid off well on the teams ... Turn the volume up.” He asked her.

“ ... the bridge that crosses the gorge will swing some when the wind blows during the afternoon as you can see.” An almost silent voice said from the video. “My guy that ran the course yesterday said that it’s not a hard crossing it, but you have to pay attention to what you were doing if you want to avoid falling.”

The next video clip was shown from the floor of the gorge and looking up at the rope bridge. “You can tell that they work on the bridge to keep it serviceable.” He said as he panned the camera across the underside.

The next clip showed what was on the floor of the gorge. “Rocks, sticks, and lots of bad things to fall on if you slip off. It also would make great camouflage if you wanted to hide down here.” The voice said. “The walls of the gorge are sheer enough you wouldn’t have a problem repelling down them in a hurry.” The camera panned right and left along the rock face at the bottom of the gorge. “There is a trail where the gorge walls meet the bottom that’s big enough to move easily at the bottom. It’s not improved enough to put a vehicle on it, but support elements would have no problem getting into or out of the area fast and quiet on foot. The river itself Is actually fairly deep in spots under the bridge. It was used for logging in the late 1800’s so the water here flows quite quickly.”

The video ended and another came on. This one was done from a vehicle. “The entrance drive is only wide enough for one car, I’d almost call it a firebreak. There are spots along the road where another car can pull over to let someone pass, but it’s a very narrow drive overall. There are 4 draws that start along the top of the entrance road and go down towards the gorge. Three of them will get you to ground low enough to not be seen from the road. The second draw along the road goes almost to the gorge. The trail I mentioned earlier is less than 10 meters from the bottom end of that draw. We cut the underbrush back enough that you can see the trail from where the draw ends.

Hannah was looking at the topographical map while she listened to the video. “The 4 draws that start on the entrance drive are narrow and steep enough at the top that unless you’re standing on the edge of the road looking down, you won’t see them. I had my men drive the road 5 times looking for the team I left there, and they couldn’t see anything past the edge of the drive.” The video changed again. This time it came from a driver’s camera in a vehicle. “The road here circles the whole course. It’s used for medical emergencies. It’s never more than 250 meters from the racecourse. The terrain to take a racer to the roadway is passible on foot.”

“We need to blow this map up and print it out.” Steven told her. At that moment, he heard the printer start up. He turned and looked at Hannah.

“Go get a few ink cartridges please, I think we’re going to need them.” She told him as the pictures started printing out.

Back in Venice, Talitha as Samara, was on the phone with Wendy herself. They’d been talking for a few minutes and were getting the pleasantries out of the way and were moving on to the meat of the call.

“I have to admit that I never would have guessed about Bjorn. Yvgeni Molchalin is Russian mob and not a very nice person overall. But he’s Ukrainian by birth and was using him to export agriculture to be sold and the proceeds would go to help the war orphans from Ukraine. I think I need to go meet with Bjorn.”

“If I may be up front with you, after dealing with my negotiator, I doubt very seriously that Bjorn will ever think about doing that again. Helena and her employees are very ... Thorough ... when they have to be.” Samara told her.

Wendy chuckled a bit after hearing that. “I appreciate her efforts. Please pass my thanks to her and her group.” She told Samara. “So, you reached out to me, what is it you think I can do for you?”

“A client of mine was a victim of fraud and embezzlement. When it was done, they lost almost ten million dollars. They are rather upset about losing this much money.” She started telling her.

“Yes, I believe I would be as well.” Wendy told her.

“I wanted to give you a courtesy call to let you know that people from my organization are going to be looking at Banco Delta Asia in Macao as the place where their money went.” Samara told her.

“Would you give me a moment please?” Wendy asked Samara.

“Of course, please take your time.” She replied. Muting the call, she looked at Petra and asked if she was still recording. Petra responded that she was.

Wendy came back on the line and started talking again. “Samara, I don’t have nearly as many banking connections as you, but I can give you a name. You’re looking for Svetlana Antropovs. I believe her last name is Michaels now. She married a politician in the United States. She has controlling interest in Banco Delta Asia.”

“I have to ask how you knew who I was looking at?” Samara asked her.

“I’m sure that you did your homework on me, just as I did with you. You and I have something in common. We’re both VERY thorough with our clients. A group of my closest clients fell victim to her a few years back to the tune of five million dollars. So, you can see why I would take an interest in her.” She replied.

“Yes, I do see.” She paused for a moment. “Should the need arise, we will be sending contractors to the area to deal with her lieutenants. Do you have any assets there that would be effected?” Samara asked.

“Nothing that I can’t move around. I would however appreciate notification if it comes to that though.” Wendy told her.

“You would have at least a week’s notice if it comes to that. More than likely, I would coordinate to use an airfield you control to quietly bring them in.” Samara told her. “But I will exhaust all other options before I use that one. Direct action is very bad for business.”

“Yes, in that respect I wholeheartedly agree with you.” Wendy told her. “Should you require assistance for this, please do not hesitate to contact me. If I can help, I will. Also, I ask one thing of you as a professional courtesy. Would you please let me know the outcome of this situation?”

“I will do better than that. When this is resolved, I would like you to be my guest in Dubai at my resort, Movenpick at Jumeirah Beach. This way, we can talk face to face regarding this matter. I find talking in person to someone alleviates misunderstandings that might occur over the phone.” Samara told Wendy.

“I would love to spend a quiet few days in the sun. And I agree with your sentiments about misunderstandings. I also believe that we could possibly do business together if you’re willing.” Wendy told her.

“I would love to discuss that with you. I admit I enjoyed this conversation immensely. If you ever need my services, please call me directly, you have my personal cell number now.” Samara told her.

“Thank you, Samara. I will look forward to the resolution then. Good luck and likewise, if you need anything, please call me.” Wendy said as she hung up.

“Wow, she’s actually quite pleasant. You’d never know that behind her voice is a stone-cold killer.” Denise told Talitha.

Tali was deep in thought after her call with Wendy when Denise touched her on the shoulder. “What are you thinking?” She asked.

“I am thinking that everything we learn from here on out about Wendy does not need to be shared with anyone else other than us.” She told her.

“Why?” Denise asked.

“The closer get to the end of my journey with Mossad, I find myself thinking about what is more important. My husband, children, and family have taken the spot that was previously occupied by my country. Talking to her on the phone has quite greatly changed my opinion of her. Nothing about her from here on out needs to go higher. We should keep her involvement a secret that only we know about. Besides, God forbid we ever have to disappear, she would be a great friend to have.” Talitha explained.

“Ok, we’ll keep her out of it.” Denise agreed.

At least we got confirmation that Svetlana’s memo about controlling interest in the bank is legit.” Robert said to the group. How much longer are we staying?”

“Plane is leaving noon tomorrow, let’s pack up and get out of here.” Denise said.

18 hours later, the team walked into the warehouse in Warsaw. The first thing they saw was all the pictures that Hannah had printed out hanging all over the hallways.

“Did we enjoy our vacation? I’ve never known any woman to take that many pictures. By the way, what am I looking at?” Laura asked no one in particular.

“I know where this is.” Dominic told her. He recognized the New River Gorge bridge and highway 19 that ran through Beckley West Virginia. “We had a couple of NCOs from RRD that made the cut to base jump from the bridge on Bridge Day. I got to write the safety brief for them, that’s how I know what it is.”

Steven and Hannah walked downstairs from the living area to welcome them back from Venice. The first thing that Steven asked was what they brought him back from there. Robert opened his bag and pulled out a T-shirt and tossed it to him.

“My friends went to carnival and all I got was this lousy t-shirt ... Perfect, I love it!” He said genuinely happy.

“Seriously?” Robert asked him.

“I seriously do. I was getting low on rags to clean my weapons with.” He said grinning.

“Glad I could help.” Robert replied as he gave Steven a knuckle bump.

Dominic gave Steven a box and spoke. “This is actually from all of us to you and Hannah since you had to stay behind.” He told him as Steven opened the box.

A megawatt smile appeared on his face when he saw what the box contained. He showed Hannah and she smiled just as big. “Patron Gran Blanc tequila is my absolute favorite.” Hannah told the group as she went and hugged everyone.

“We’ll sample this tonight after dinner. I’m grilling steak by the way. Thank you very much my brothers and sisters.” Steven said as he hugged or shook hands after Hannah was finished.

Denise and Dominic were looking that pictures hanging all over the downstairs area. She was commenting on the angles they were taken from and Dominic was actually looking at the construction of the obstacles.

“Look at this, one of the legs of the racecourse runs right next to the New River gorge. Steven who took these?” Dominic yelled.

“Steven is putting the meat on the grill, but I can answer that for you.” Hannah told him. “These were taken by a MARSOC friend of his. This is the Spartan Racecourse in Beckley West Virginia. Let’s finish dinner and we’ll tell you about all of this.” She said.

An hour later, the group had finished their steaks and were sitting on the roof sipping 5-year-old tequila and telling Steven and Hannah about their trip.

“I swear to you, in plain sight of the Italian military police compound in Venice. We have pictures of them doing the vertical hokey pokey. They didn’t have a care in the world.” Robert told Steven and Hannah as they laughed.

Hannah was pouring shots for everyone as they talked. When she got to Steven, she looked at the picture on the cell phone in shock. “How the hell does she not get a cramp in her stomach from touching the ground with her legs wrapped around him?” She asked.