Chapter 8

Giselle and Ludmilla heard the starters pistol fire and took off running. Svetlana was 20 meters in front of them. They had noticed the small drone that was following them and watching what went on. Svetlana had taken off at a good pace trying to get out in front of the rest of the women racers.

“Shit this woman can move.” Giselle told Ludmilla.

“She’s just doing it to get out ahead of the others. If I had to guess, she’ll slow down towards the end.” Ludmilla replied. “You worried about not being able to keep up?”

“Not in the least.” Giselle replied.

The pair of women rounded the first curve saw the first obstacle. It was a series of log crossings that were 2 feet above multiple puddles of mud. Svetlana was already across the second one as Giselle and Ludmilla hit the initial log. Ludmilla went to the right one and Giselle used the left log. They watched as Svetlana hit the ground and took off at a sprint for the next obstacle.

Robert and Dominic were watching via the drone that was following their team members. They saw Svetlana take off at a sprint for the next obstacle.

“Holy shit she’s fast. Wonder if she’s as good at distance as she is short races.” Dominic wondered.

“You need to worry about a certain brunette with blond highlights that you’ve been seeing. Michelle would take a decidedly negative view of your comment about going the distance. I know I would if I were her.” Robert told him with a smile and flipping him the bird. “Besides, she’s probably in the office with Director Richards and listening to what you’re saying.”

“What are you talking about? I’m curious if she can run distance and you’re leaping to the assumption that I’m actually wondering how long she can go in bed? Dude, you really need to get laid.” Dom told him with a smile.

At that point, Denise’s voice came over the comms channel. “I gotta agree with Robert on this one Dom. I’d keep your eyes on Michelle for the moment. And yes, she is in the office with the director and hearing everything you’re saying.”

Dom decided to butter her up some. “You know what’s awesome about Michelle?” He quietly asked Robert.

“No, do tell, what’s awesome about Michelle?” Robert replied.

“She is absolutely gorgeous. She needs to have a tattoo on her that says ‘warning, these curves will cause a heart attack’. We went to The Cheesecake factory in Manassas and had a coffee one evening after dinner and everyone, women included, were staring at her. I’m proud to show her off as mine wherever we go.” Dom told him. “I also never would have figured that she would be so intelligent either. She’s the type of woman that knows a little bit about a lot of stuff. We didn’t run out of anything to talk about. We stayed there and closed the place down. I mean it brother; she really is awesome.”

Robert looked up and gave him the ok sign up and mouthed the word Perfect. Dom smiled and mouthed back I hope so. Dominic’s phone went off right after that. He looked at the text message from Michelle. He laughed and showed it to Robert.

“Wipe the shit off your nose and get back to work.” Robert read out loud. All you heard on comms was laughter at that point.

Back in the race, Giselle and Ludmilla had gotten closer to Svetlana as the race progressed. She had taken her time crossing the commando rope line. When she had dismounted, she looked back at the two women and again took off at a dead sprint for the next obstacle.

“How far are we from the bridge?” Ludmilla asked.

“Less than a mile. Two obstacles and a straight away.” She replied to her teammate.

When they got around the first curve, they saw Svetlana stumbling and eventually falling over. She was holding her ankle and the pair of women could see a look of pain on her face. They stopped to see if they could help.

“Are you ok Mrs. Michaels?” Ludmilla asked.

“I was so intent on staying ahead of you both, that I got careless and missed the rock sticking out of the ground back there. I think I rolled my ankle. Please, I am fine, do not stop your race on my account.” She told them with a smile.

“Nonsense, what kind of people would we be if we didn’t stop to help someone in need. Besides, we do this for fun and we’re not competing for anything.” Giselle told her. “Let us help you up, we’ll get you to the medical station around the next corner.”

They picked Svetlana up and helped her around the next corner. When the got to the tent, a pair of men were watching the racers go by. When they saw the three women come around the curve, the ran over to help.

“What happened?” The first one asked.

“She thinks she sprained her ankle on a rock back there.” Giselle told him.

“Can you stand on it ma’am?” He asked her.

“No, I do not think I can. I tried earlier and pain shot through my foot and leg.” She replied.

The two men grabbed Svetlana and helped her over to the chair and sat her down. “Thank you for helping her, we’ll take it from here.” One of them told her.

“Thank you for your help ladies, I shall not forget it.” Svetlana told her waving as the two women took off to finish the race.

“Ok, let’s look at your ankle.” The man told her. He started to gently untie and pull her shoe off her foot. “Ok, that’s a good sign, you’re not screaming like a banshee as I take your shoe off.” He said with a grin.

“You have a very good chair side manner. How come I have never seen you out here before?” Svetlana asked.

“I just got hired on at the EMS service that was picked to provide medical coverage for the race.” He told her. “I’m David and this is my co-worker James.” David looked at her for a moment and then spoke. “And you must me Lana Michaels.” He told her.

“How did you know that?” She asked with a small smile.

“I know you from my daughter watching your racing videos. She knows almost everything there is listed on the internet about you.” He told her.

“How old is she?” Svetlana asked.

“She turns 16 this year and is dying to run this race.” David told her. “Her goal is to get the organizers to have a 16-19 division so she can race next year. She’s been canvassing for signatures on her petition and has almost two thousand now.”

“I would love to meet her.” Svetlana told him.

“She’d love to meet you as well. Like I said, she’s a big fan.” David told her. “Actually, can we do a selfie so I can show her that I met her hero?”

“Absolutely we can take a selfie.” She said.

“Let me finish treating your ankle and we’ll get that done. I think it’s just a bad sprain. At worst, you pulled some ligaments or tendons. I’m not going to be able to let you continue the race. However, we have a quad runner and we’ll run you to the boundary road for an ambulance pick up and they’ll take you to the ER from there.” David told her. He started getting it bandaged up and ready to get her out of there. He handed her a bottle of water and a sample packet of Aleve. “Take both of those and drink all the water and let me get my partner and we’ll get you out of here.”

Back on the racecourse, Giselle and Ludmilla had picked up their pace to almost a sprint. They had watched as the two men they were unofficially running against passed them as they helped Svetlana to the tent.

“Come on, there they are.” Giselle told Ludmilla.

“When we get to the next obstacle, you go first. I’ll be less than 2 seconds behind you so you better land like we practiced. Let’s show these men what they’re up against.” She told her with an evil grin.

“Oh yeah.” Giselle said as she stretched into a full sprint to get ahead of Ludmilla.

The two men watched as Giselle vaulted off a stump that was sticking out of the ground, grabbed the pole that was bracing the log wall up, swung out so she was parallel with the wall, and then disappeared on the other side. What was even more shocking was that the woman she was running with did the exact thing right behind her. When they got over the other side of the wall, the women were already down the straight away towards the next obstacle.

Giselle and Ludmilla were almost to the next obstacle when they heard a group of quad runners racing towards them at a high RPM. They slowed down and stepped off the course and watched as 6 vehicles raced past them towards the back side of the racecourse where the bridge was.

“Wonder what that’s about?” Ludmilla asked.

Giselle made a cross on her heart. “I swear I have no idea...” She said as they both took off to the finish line.

David and his partner were waiting for medical transportation when the call came across the radio. The three of them listened as the voice was detailing that someone had fallen off the bridge and landed in the river below.

“I hope whoever it is will be ok.” Svetlana said.

“I wouldn’t worry about it; we’ve got people below the bridge and we’re prepared for that if it happens.” James told her. “The people in the boats on the river are all certified divers so if anyone goes in the water, they’ll be there in seconds.”

“Good, I am not a fan of the injuries that this sport produces.” Svetlana told him. “I think that I will start online funding campaign to have a safety net installed under the bridge.”

“If anyone could pull it off, I think it would be you.” David told her. “Oh crap!” He said suddenly as he grabbed his phone. “Almost forgot the picture.” He said.

“Do either of you have a piece of paper I can write on?” She asked.

James handed her a sheet from his notebook that he used to write up the injury report. He watched as Svetlana wrote out a note to her and held it up when the picture was taken.

“You realize that my daughter is going to have a million questions for me when I get home. The fact that I have a picture of you holding a sign that says, ‘Let’s do this race together next year’ will motivate her even more.” David told her.

“I hope so.” She told him. “She reminds me of myself when I was her age.”

They watched as the ambulance pull up and stopped in front of them. But instead of EMT technicians, a group of men and women wearing FBI jackets jumped out of the back. Both David and James stood up, pulled pistols from under their jackets and pointed them at Svetlana.

“FBI...” James quietly announced. “Svetlana Michaels, you’re under arrest for RICO violations in connections with funding terrorism.” James told her. “Go along with these men and you’ll be treated for your injuries first and then taken for questioning.”

She looked at the men and raised her hands slowly. “I will not fight, and I will cooperate as much as I can with you.” She told the agents as they loaded her into the ambulance.

The agents helped her to stand up. They cuffed her hands in front and then helped her into the ambulance. David and James got back into the quad runner and drove back to the racecourse as fast as they could.

Camila Garcia and Ishmael Suarez had been hiking through the woods when they saw a woman fall into the river from the bridge. They were talking to the race officials and the state police about what they saw.

“I swear, she, like, slipped and didn’t have a good grip on the safety line thing. When she fell, she cartwheeled a couple times and landed very badly from what I could see.” She told them. Camila put her arms at odd angles. “She landed like this and I, like, didn’t see her come up.”

The other officer was talking to Ishmael. “Totally dude, if it was a high dive, it would have been most righteous as a dive. I’d have, like, given her a 10 for the dive, but, like, a 2 for the water entrance.” He told them.

“So, you didn’t see anyone else on the bridge when she went in?” The race official asked them.

“Naw dude, she was out there doing her own thing.” Ishmael told them.

“Are we going to be, like, called to testify in court or something?” Camila asked. “Cause, we like need someone to tell us now since we’re, like, on vacation and stuff and have to be back in San Francisco soon.”

“What is it you do there?” one of the police officers asked them.

“We hand out meals to the homeless people. It’s a calling bro. We were called to help those who were like, less fortunate than us. We feel that if there were more people to, like, help others that there would be, like, less war in the world.” Ishmael told them. “We came out here to get, like, back to nature and commune with the natural forces that the spirits in the forest have and reset our minds and karma.”

“Yeah, like, there’s a whole bunch of us who, like, cook and put the meals together and then we, like give them out at the homeless metropolises they call home. It’s truly righteous.” Camila told them.

“No, I doubt you’ll need to come back here. We have your statements and I think that should be enough.” The police captain told them.

“Oh, good man, not that we wouldn’t have come, but, like, it would take away from our calling and would seriously affect our karma dude.” Ishmael told him.

“Oh no, we wouldn’t want that now would we...” The officer said. “If you walk that way, it’ll put you back on the trail you were on. Thank you for your help with this.” The captain told them.

“No worries dude, glad we could, like, help.” He replied as they walked back to the trail. When they were out of sight of the police officers, they broke into a run and made it back to their vehicle.

“You think they bought the whole peacenik hippie routine?” Laura asked Steven getting into the driver’s seat.

“I’m pretty sure they did.” He replied. “Truly righteous? Really?” He said as they drove to meet Denise and Talitha.

“Oh please, I’m going to call you Ted, go find Bill and you can have an excellent adventure.” She replied.

Giselle and Ludmilla were on the last leg of the course and were almost to the finish line. The whole team was at the finish waiting for them. When they turned the last corner, they both broke into a dead sprint and ran as fast as they could. Denise was holding a stopwatch and hit start as they crossed the finish line.

The guys were holding cold water and body armor energy drinks for them when they got over to them. The women were panting but were smiling. The guys twisted the tops off the energy drinks and handed them to the women.

“Thanks guys, I’m a bit slagged.” Ludmila told them still panting heavily.

“They could care less about us, they’re here to see who won the bet.” Giselle told her.

“Ahh...” Ludmilla replied rolling her eyes.

All seven of them turned to wait for the 2 men that they were racing against. Finally, they came around the last curve and crossed the line. Denise stopped the clock and then walked over to the rest of the team.

“One minute seven seconds.” She told Robert.

He pulled out his time sheet and looked at it. “Are you kidding me?” he said in disbelief

“Who won?” Talitha asked.

Robert handed her the times he’d written down and Tali just started laughing and Denise was shaking her head in disgust.

Less than 3 seconds later, Denise’s cell rang. She held it up to show Hank Richards was on the phone. “Your timing is excellent, sir.” She said with sarcasm in her voice. “Yes sir, everything is in hand ... Yes sir, I do have the time.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose and spoke again. “Please congratulate Director Haspel on winning ... No sir, it is not a conspiracy for me to get promoted to your job.” She looked at the team and they were all shaking their heads in disbelief. “Yes sir, Tali and I are going to stay and follow up to make sure that everything is moving along smoothly ... Yes sir, I’ll relay that message to them ... It was a team effort, but we thank you ... Yes sir, see you there.” She disconnected the call.

“Director Haspel says, quote, you bitches better have my money, unquote.” Denise said with a small smile.

“Who’d have thought, a politically incorrect politician in this day and age.” Steven said to the group.

“Oh, I’ve been in meetings with her where people from the state department pissed her off badly enough that she told them that she has deeper and darker holes than Hoover. Trust me, she might be PC in public, but she will NOT hesitate to get old school on anyone.” Denise told him.

“We’ll meet you at the hotel and pack your gear for the ride to the bunker.” Dominic told her and Talitha.

The race officials had all returned to the starting point of the race. They were talking amongst themselves as they walked to the tent being used to coordinate the race. Denise and Talitha made it look like they were waiting for someone to cross the finish line.

They both walked over to the tent and waited for someone to talk to them. One of the race officials came over and asked if he could help them.

“We were waiting for Lana Michaels to cross the finish line; she is usually finished way before now. Is she ok?” Talitha asked him.

“We aren’t at liberty to release any information about it, but there was an accident and we think that from the description of the woman involved, it was Lana. I’m sorry, but that’s all I can tell you.” He told them both.

They wore a shocked look and turned around to walk off. They walked over and stood next to their vehicle to wait. Denise got into the driver’s side of the car and quietly put a directional microphone on the dash and pointed it through the open passenger’s window, at the tent. Sitting in the back seat, Talitha put an ear wig in and started to listen to what was being said.

She listened to the person in charge of the race talk about what was going to happen next. His phone rang right after he started talking.

“Hello?’ He paused and listened. “Yes, we’ve accounted for all racers but her.” He paused again and then hung his head. “You’re sure it’s her? Of course, we’ll leave the bridge alone until you get an investigator out there ... yes, we’ve got all the maintenance records and we’re prepared to cooperate fully.” He said. “No, we’ll keep the circumstances to ourselves ... Thank you for letting us know, Captain.” The race official disconnected the call and gently put his phone down. “It was Lana.” Was all he said as he got up and walked into the woods to be alone.

Talitha looked at Denise. “They just got notified that the body is Svetlana, I think we are good.” She told her.

“Come on, we have a helicopter to catch.” Denise told her as Tali got into the front seat. She sent a text message to Hank Richards confirming that the race officials think Svetlana was dead, and they drove off.

When they got back to the motel in Beckley they were staying in, the bags were already packed in the back of the SUV they had rented. Hannah and Petra had showered and changed their clothes and were watching the video of their race.

“Wow, I had no idea we were moving THAT fast down the last straight away.” Petra told Hannah.

“Me neither. I honestly didn’t even see the couple we passed on the straight away headed in.” She replied.

“They were quite shocked at how fast you were moving.” Dom told them.

“Back it up to the log wall crossing one more time please.” Laura asked. Robert found the part she wanted and hit play. They all watched as There was less than 2 seconds between the both of them getting over the wall. “Damn, that’s some straight up Wonder Woman shit there.” She told them.

“We practiced that a few times in case we needed the shock and awe effect for Svetlana.” Hannah told her.

“Yeah, to be honest, it could have gone to shit very quick if we had bollocksed that up. But since we didn’t, I’m calling it a win.” Petra told her as they watched Denise and Tali walk up. “We got your stuff in the truck, what’s the verdict?” She asked them.

“Perfect. The race officials think Svetlana is dead. Have you heard how the take down went?” Denise asked.

Almost on que, FBI Special Agent David Miller walked out of the hotel with his bag. “Hey Denise, how did it go?” He asked.

“Totally according to plan. The race officials were told it was her and the State Police is taking ‘the body’ to the morgue. How was it on your end?” She asked him.

“Went off without a hitch. She actually told us that she’d cooperate as much as she could.” David told her. “Shocked doesn’t begin to cover how I felt. But we got her out of there and falsified the paperwork for the race and they’re none the wiser.”

Dominic looked at his watch. “We’ve got over an hour till we have to catch the bird to Pennsylvania and the FBI is handling the vehicles; do we have time to stop and grab Taco Bell?”

“I could absolutely go for a crunch wrap supreme.” Robert replied.

“Grilled Steak XL stuffed burrito with extra Pico de Gallo please.” David said.

“You and Robert are sitting together when we get on the chinook for Pennsylvania.” Steven told David. In the end, the flight was actually delayed for another 3 hours. The powers that be decided that they didn’t want to take a chance that anyone would see Svetlana in the daylight.

It was past 2200 and the people involved with the Beckley operation were all sitting in the back of a Chinook helicopter on their way to the bunker at Raven Rock Pennsylvania. Svetlana was wearing a black hood and ear protection over it. Even though her ankle and left foot were wrapped and immobilized, she was shackled hands and feet.

Denise was texting with Hank Richards while they were travelling. She and Talitha had discussed how they wanted the questioning to go. Hank told her that because she was captured in the continental US that the FBI were wanting to run the interrogation. Denise had compromised with them and they would let the them guide the interrogation, but she was free to ask questions whenever Svetlana said anything that interested her.

They felt the bird start to descend and they all picked up their luggage. Denise looked out at the bunker complex. The landing pad was circled by the FBI HRT. The bird flared a bit to land and Denise watched as the escorting agents picked up Svetlana in a 2-person seated carry. The back ramp went down and there was a line of small lights on the ground all the way to the bunker door. The 2 agents carrying Svetlana had gotten off first and were walking, surrounded by 6 agents, to the door.

Denise and the team leisurely exited the aircraft and walked in behind them. When they got inside, the doors closed and the hallway lights came up slowly. They turned to see Hank’s PA, Michelle Viscazi, standing in the hallway waiting for them. She walked over to Denise and shook hers and the rest of the team’s hands.

“Congratulations to you all. Directors Haspel and Richards are waiting for you in the level 2 conference room. If you’ll walk to the left, the elevator is on your right about 50 meters down the hallway.” She told Denise. “Can I borrow Captain Schultz for a moment?” She asked.

“I suppose. Please don’t break him, we still need him.” She told him walking down the hallway.

“No promises.” She said looking at him with the same Cheshire cat grin she always gives him.

“Dom, please come find us as soon as your boss lets you.” Denise told him. The rest of the group chuckled and walked on.

When they were all out of sight, Michelle ran to him and jumped. He caught her and she wrapped her arms and legs around him. She squeezed and gave him a kiss that would melt the sun.

“I missed you.” She told him.

“I missed you too. Did your parents make it to Gettysburg?” He asked her.

“Yes, they got in last night. Mom said she hopes you’re up to her standards and ready for her inspection.” Michelle told him.

“Your stories about your mom scare me more than your dads do, you know that?” Dom told her.

“She should.” She told him. Michelle gave him one more kiss. He put her down and then they both made their way to the elevator to join the team. When they turned the corner, the other 7 members of the team were waiting for them. Steven held up his cell phone and snapped his wrist. His phone made a bullwhip snapping sound and they all broke into laughter.

The team with David Miller walked into the conference room on level 2. Hank Richards was the first one up to greet them as they walked in. Director Haspel was right behind him with a huge smile on her face.

“Congratulations on an operation well done and flawlessly executed.” He said with a genuine smile as he shook their hands. “I had my doubts about this, but you proved us both wrong.”

“Thank you, sir, like I said on the phone it was a team effort. We all played a role in it.” Denise told him.

“Special Agent Miller, good job on the arrest. I was pleased that she went as quietly as she did.” He told Agent Miller.

“Sir it was a surprise to all of us as well. When she told us that she’d cooperate fully with us, I almost passed out.” He told Hank.

“Well, we’re going to find out how willing she is in about an hour.” Hank told him.

CIA Director Haspel walked over and held her hand out. All the members of the Eldest Son team, except Robert, gave her the money they’d bet. Robert waited for a moment until he was last.

“Senior Chief, are you welching on the bet?” She asked him.

“No ma’am, I just wanted to be sure that you had room in your hands for this.” Robert told her as he pulled out a very thick envelope and handed it to her. “One thousand dollars, Congratulations ma’am.” He said with a grin.

She chuckled a bit as she opened the envelope to see nothing but one- and five-dollar bills. “I like the way you did that senior chief.” She said as she walked back to her seat. “By the way, as customary, the after-mission drinks are on me when this is over.” She told them.

John Selleck walked into the conference room as they were all sitting down. “Sorry for my being late, I was getting the needed paperwork to send to my director. Svetlana is secure and says that she’ll talk, but only to the people that planned out the mission to get her.”

Hank and Gina Haspel looked at each other and then over at John. “We can accommodate her, but I was under the impression that your interrogators would be leading this.” Director Haspel told him.

“I called Director Wray after I spoke to her and he agreed that if she’s willing to talk, then giving her this one concession wouldn’t be a bad thing. Honestly from what I’ve seen from the flash drive data, she doesn’t have to talk, we have her cold on a minimum of 20 counts of RICO and 10 more of aiding terrorism.” Selleck told them. “We can prosecute her later after she tells us what we know.”

Denise, and Talitha were talking quietly to each other for moment. When they were finished, Denise spoke up. “Directors, may I offer some insight...”

“Please Denise, go ahead.” Director Haspel said.

“Neither Tali, nor I are politicians or lawyers, so we have no dog in that fight. What we do have is over 30 years of covert operational and interrogation experience between the two of us. Our guts tell us that there is more to what’s going on here than what we know at the moment. Russian operatives as a rule do not just offer to cooperate on the spot when they are captured or arrested. I agree that she needs to pay for her crimes, but we need to know what she knows first, and then you can throw her to the wolves.” She said.

Talitha spoke up after her. “I’ve talked to and interrogated many Russian agents and they were all defiant till the end. Agent Miller told us she was conversational on the way to have her ankle looked at and was joking with the escorting agents before she got on the chinook to come here. That is not the behavior of a dedicated SVR operative. We should give her the chance to cooperate.”

“Directors, they’re right.” Agent Miller said. “You’ve got a living Russian agent offering to cooperate with us. That is unheard of these days. Let them talk to her and see where this goes. If it turns out to be legitimate then she is a wealth of knowledge that we need to make use of.”

“If you were to talk to her, how would you proceed?” Director Haspel asked Denise.

“I’d start by getting to know her. I’ve spent almost my entire career as an interrogator or dealing with people, so I’m a good judge of the human condition. If she’s lying, I’ll know in less than 30 minutes.” She told her. “If she’s telling me the truth, we get her to give us a piece of intelligence. We’ll have my computer guru look it up or find it to verify it and then plan from there.”

“Who’s your computer guru?” Haspel asked Denise.

“Petra Allen, Director.”

“She hacked the Russian diplomatic server and got us the information on Chugunov. Excellent job by the way Ms. Allen, I hope the compensation was on par with your efforts? Haspel asked her.

“It was Madam Director, thank you for your generosity.” Petra replied.

She looked at John Selleck and spoke. “John, where does the bureau stand with this?”

“Director Wray gave me discretion to act on his behalf. If we can get her to give something up that we can verify, then go for it.” He told her. “I will tell you that if this is the route we’re going down, then it would cover our collective asses to have an AUSA and defense attorney here just to check the block so to speak.”

“Do you have a federal defense attorney with clearance at this level?” Hank asked his friend.