Chapter 2

Cover names are listed at the top and glossary is at the end...

Samar Ivanov- TalithaHelena Wagner- Denise
Giselle Chevalier- Hannah
Markus
Kovalev- RobertCamila Garcia- Laura
Ishmael Suarez- Steven

Sitting in le Vin Coeur near the Arc de Triomphe, Hannah sat listening to the chatter on the wireless earpiece from Denise, Talitha, and Robert about their favorite recipes. Robert is talking about how he makes Strawberry cheesecake bites. The only redeeming factor about this part of the job was that she got to drink her favorite French wine while she was waiting.

“No, I don’t use anything that’s processed. If you can’t do it right the first time, then why bother. The cream cheese I get is from a small place outside of Daytona. An old Russian couple buy it from a dairy in southern Georgia and it is without a doubt the best tasting cream cheese I’ve ever had.” Robert told the Denise and Talitha.

“I know of a place outside Haifa that makes their own cream cheese, and it is very good with strawberries. I think the saying from the 1980’s is ‘I will take the Pepsi challenge’?” Tali responded with.

Denise was in thought and spoke up after they stopped talking. “Don’t forget, there’s so many places in Frankfurt that buy their cheese from local dairies. I could find something that could compete.”

Hannah was rubbing the bridge of her nose listening to them talk about strawberry cheesecake. The three of them knew that it was her favorite dessert and snack.

“So when you’re finished rolling the crust up, put hot melted butter on top, but only the top. It has to be hot so that it will give the crust a better flavor. When you put them in the oven, check it every 10 minutes for how it’s looking. If you over bake them, it won’t taste as right.” Robert said.

“I can live with that, but my question is how much cream cheese do you put in the center with the strawberries?” Denise asked.

“It depends, if you have whipped cream cheese, I use a tablespoon. If you have a block, I’ll usually cut a half inch to an inch square piece off of it. It really depends on how you want it to taste.” Robert replied.

Hannah by this time was not a very happy person. She pulled out her phone and sent a text message to Denise. Robert and Talitha heard Denise laughing.

“Hannah just sent me a text. She says she isn’t giving us shit the next time she bakes.” The three of them laughed even harder.

“If you’re hungry, go get a pastry or something.” Denise replied to Hannah...

“I’d stay away from anything made with strawberries. They’re not in season for another couple months. By the way, I love your new look. Dark hair suites you.” Robert told her.

Robert, Talitha, and Denise knew that she’d never leave the table. She was waiting for Ludmilla Baranski to arrive and couldn’t miss her sitting down. Keeping her head down to make it look like she was reading the magazine she was holding, with her eyes, she looked up at the top of the building where Robert was watching for Ludmilla. Standing up, Hannah extended her arms to stretch. When her arms were all the way out, she gave Robert the middle finger salute.

Robert laughed quietly from the rooftop across the road. “You’re number one with me too Hannah.” Robert spoke over the radio.

“Did she just flip you off?” Denise asked with a chuckle.

“Yup.” He replied. Talitha and Denise joined in the laughter. Robert was looking through a pair of binoculars when he spotted Ludmilla walking up the street. “Show time. Target is 200meters from the cafe and closing.” Robert aimed the spotting scope down the street and focused in so that Denise and Tali could see what is happening. “She’s on Rue de Tilsitt moving east northeast. She’s walking casually and checking her six with the shop windows.” He told them.

“Hannah, stand by, target will be there in approximately 2 minutes with the pace she’s going.” Denise told her. “Robert, can you put the scope on auto track and check her six about 200 meters behind her just to make sure we don’t have to abort?”

“Roger, stand by...” Robert replied. He scanned the area behind Ludmilla and didn’t see anyone following her. “Negative sighting on her six.”

“Roger, Hannah it’s all on you now.” Denise said over the radio.

Hannah rolled her head to signal acknowledgment and went back to looking at the magazine.

“25 meters...” Robert said. “She’s wearing black with multicolored striped leggings, a red top, and a black with white and blue accents coat.”

Ludmilla walked past Hannah and sat down at the cafe a couple tables over from her. One of the baristas came over, smiled, and gave her a friendly hug. She took Ludmilla’s order and then went to get it. Ludmilla then leaned over to a vacant table, picked up the French newspaper laying on it, and started flipping through it.

Hannah’s scarf and overcoat were lying on the table. She pulled her scarf back a little bit to reveal the end of a telephoto lens under her overcoat. Making it look like she was trying to get something out of her coat, she moved the camera angle so that it could catch everything Ludmilla did on video. She looked up every few seconds to the video feed on the camera. She watched as it caught her lift her eyes to look down the road. Hannah picked up her cell phone and texted Denise.

“Target is facing south southeast and watching down Avenue Carnot like she’s looking for someone. Are you sure?”

Hannah nodded her head slightly with almost no perceptive movement.

Thirty minutes later, a red sedan pulled up to the curb and let a tall man out and stood within 5 meters of Ludmilla’s table. Hannah watched as Ludmilla tensed up and uncrossed her legs like she was getting ready to walk out of the cafe. She put the paper down and grabbed her purse like she was looking for something. The man smiled, waved, and walked to another table with a group of people.

“Robert, get a group picture of all the people at the table he went to, just in case.” Talitha said.

“Already on it, stand by...” He told Denise. Robert moved the spotter’s scope to the table and snapped a picture of all of them. He immediately sent it off to Talitha. “Got it, downloading ... and the picture is enroute...”

Hannah watched as the server brought Ludmilla her cappuccino and a scone. Widening the view of the camera to catch the surrounding area, she watched Ludmilla take a drink of the coffee and cringe. She waved to the server, and she returned to Ludmilla’s table to see what she wanted. Ludmilla told the server that the coffee is too cold and asks to have another one made. The server apologized and went directly to the bar to get another one for her. Hannah picked up her phone and texted again and listened as Denise laughed when she got it.

“Hannah says that someone must be out of tampons this morning.” Denise says into the radio. Hannah heard Robert and Talitha join in the laughing. “Maybe she was out of Charmin when she woke up this morning.” Denise replied.

Hannah chuckled a bit as the others laughed in her ear. She then heard Robert in her ear again.

“Heads up, someone’s sitting down with Ludmilla.” Robert alerted the group. “I can’t get an angle on who it is. I doubt it would matter since he or she is wearing a hat and sunglasses.”

Stealthily, Hannah tried to adjust the camera to get a better angle but couldn’t do it without moving her whole arrangement and exposing the camera. She picked up her phone and sent a text message to Denise.

“Hannah just told me she can’t either. Don’t worry about it. I think we have enough to work with. Break it down and come on back so we can plan.” They all heard Denise say.

Hannah sent a text to Robert who chuckles as he reads it. “She’s gonna stop and get some strawberry cheesecake on the way back.”

Back at the apartment they rented, the seven of them were sitting around trying to hash out a plan. Mostly it had been sitting around watching Hannah not share any of her assorted cheesecake rolls she’d gotten from the bakery across the street up to this point.

“You suck, I want you to know that.” Denise told Hannah.

“I swallow too...” she replied offering a cake roll to Steven and Laura.

“TMI sister, WAAAAYYYYY TMI.” Robert said to her as she giggled.

“Alright, let’s get this going so we can finish, I’ve got a craving for steak and lobster.” Dom said. “We’ve got Ludmilla and someone we couldn’t get a look at today because chances are he’s a spook. Anyone have any suggestions about how to move forward?”

“I’m not nearly as long-term thinking as those two...” Laura said pointing to Denise and Tali. “But the potential for Ludmilla to be an asset is there. From everything I read in the dossier on her, she’s not political and doesn’t harbor anti west leanings. When you get down to it, she’s a businesswoman who is marketing what skills she has and what she’s good at.”

“I would agree with you, but she was responsible for some pretty sensitive information getting out into the open about a couple agents the Germans had planted with Doctors Without Borders. Consequently, they disappeared during a trip to the Congo.” Talitha said to the group.

“Ok, so she’s a bit lacking in scruples. Still, she can be brought in to work for Helena or Samara.” Laura replied.

Robert spoke up then. “Actually ... if you think about it the right way, it’s a great idea...”

“What the great idea?” Steven asked not looking up from his folder.

He paused for a second before launching into his explanation. “Ludmilla offers services to the highest bidder, and she doesn’t care who it is. What’s her view on terrorism and Islamic militancy?” He asked.

Dom and Hannah were reading over the files. “It doesn’t say one thing either way, but from what I’m looking at in my stack of files, she’s stayed away from anyone even remotely connected with the Middle East.” Dom said.

“Nothing in my pile either about her dealing with anyone connected with terror.” Hannah said.

Robert continued. “Like Laura said, she lacks a moral compass. But that doesn’t mean she can’t be brought in to work for Helena’s organization if the situation was dire enough and the money was good. The great thing is that we’d have our own information broker that can get more intel for us to act on. The even more beautiful part of it is that the information comes in quicker, directly to us, and ... Anyone? Anyone?”

Talitha smiled. “You are much smarter than I gave you credit for Robert.”

“I’m going to start taking you more seriously from now on.” Denise told him.

“Would someone like to clue the rest of us morons into what you three are thinking?” Steven asked.

“We get to go offensive MUCH faster than if it filters down through the agencies.” Talitha replied told Steven. “I know for a fact that Director Fogelman can get the Mossad director to sign off on this.”

“I’ll have to have the deputy director fly over to Ceausescu Tower and we’ll both meet with the MI6 director, but I can dumb it down enough for them to understand what we’re asking for.” Denise said.

“Do you have the authority to execute offensive actions?” Robert asked.

“Yes, but no. If it’s a time sensitive thing, I can justify acting on it before approval comes down. But it would have to have a no later than 48-hour limit. Everything else has to go higher for approval from Langley.” Denise explained.

“Now comes the hard part, how do we get her in and keep her in?” Dominic asked. The whole room looked at Robert.

“What? I have one good idea and suddenly I have to do ALL the planning?” He asked.

“Well, that is how it works. You come up with one idea, you gotta follow it up with another.” Denise said.

“Huh, I never knew that ... Guess it’s a good thing that I have another great idea.” Robert replied. “We had a computer geek in my Seal platoon a few years ago. He made Bill Gates look like an idiot.” Robert said. “Anyway, his downtime was spent surfing the dark web for contracts that had been taken out on people. He thought it was funny to send them little messages calling them a chicken shit for not doing it themselves. One evening after we had packed up and got ready to redeploy, he found contract on a translator we used. We found out that the translator was working both sides of the fence. We used that to get everything out of him that we could. The powers that be, extended us for another month with what he gave us.”

“Ok, so?” Dom asked.

“So, we find something she did in the recent past and we put out a fictional contract on her life but only to the point that we can show her it’s out there. We use some of our military or MI6 assets and have them follow her around and generally make her paranoid that someone has found her.”

“Because information brokers love their anonymity and use it as a defense mechanism to hide from people.” Hannah said with a smirk. “Now all we have to do is find something that she was involved in and get this set up.”

Laura tapped Hannah on the shoulder and handed her a stack of papers. “You’re welcome.”

Hannah read over it and then gave it to Denise and Talitha to read over.

“It’s a report from Saudi Intelligence about Ludmilla being responsible for giving information to another broker that was in bed with ISIS. According to him, she gave info to this guy that enabled them to get behind the forward lines of the Kurds in northern Turkey ... Says ISIS wiped out 60 Kurdish fighters.” Denise read.

“Ok, so we have our contract justification, how do we handle it? We can’t follow her if she’s going to see us later when we’re working with her.” Steven pointed out. “We also have to think about one other thing. She’s got a backup plan for E&E. In fact, she’s probably very good at evading people.”

Robert spoke up. “She’s also probably got at least 2 safe houses. We’re going to have to pinpoint those also.”

“I think we have three of them already located, look at this.” Tali said. She turned her laptop around to show them the two apartments that she’d been seen going in and out of. “If you look at both these buildings, you can see that it is nothing that a woman of her experience or means would stay in. It is not a bad place, but I am sure that Ludmilla likes her comfort. The third one is more along her tastes. It does not make people think the residents that live there are filthy rich. Yet at the same time, it does show that they have money. I would bet that she sleeps here and not at the other buildings.” She finished saying.

“We’ve got her pattern down for the most part.” Hannah said standing at the large map of Paris. She put the report down and grabbed some stickpins. “She eats breakfast at a trattoria outside her building.” Hannah put a stickpin where her building is on the map. “And then she goes running and usually rides the metro back close to her building. She never runs the same route more than once, so there’s not use plotting that. She showers, changes, she’ll take a small backpack with all her equipment to either the Cafe de Roma, Casa Lucas, or Le Vin Coeur to use their internet.” Hannah put pins in all those locations. “Those are the three places she goes to work. We also know that she’s friendly with the people that run those establishments.” Hannah said as she picked up another pin. “She’s also been seen going to L’arc Paris and Wanderlust. Both of those are nightclubs and it wouldn’t be very hard for her to disappear in there, so we exclude those.”

“What are you thinking sister?” Denise asked.

“We use the cafes and restaurants she frequents to approach her. How would Helena feel about having Ludmilla work for Giselle since she’s going to make the approach?” Hannah asked.

“Helena would be fine with it, but why would she work for Giselle instead of Helena directly?” Denise asked.

“We keep this compartmentalized for the sake of the project. Ludmilla is going to meet Helena in the beginning, but only see her once every few weeks. She sees people she’s working with, but other than knowing they work for Helena, she doesn’t know what all they do.” Hannah explained. “Also, Samara stays out of this. She can be used as a last resort if we need help.”

“I agree. Samara stays hidden for now.” Tali agreed.

Denise picked up her cell phone and made a call and walked out of the living area.

Talitha looked at Hannah. “If you get tired of playing the piano, you would make a great intelligence handler.” She said to her.

“It’s easier than playing the piano in front of 5 thousand people, I know that.” Hannah said to Tali.

Denise walked back into the room. “MI6 and SBS assets are on their way from RM Poole and will be here tomorrow around lunchtime. Hannah, this is your chess game, so you pick them up and brief them.” She told her. “I agree with Tali also ... You would make a great spymaster.”

Three days later

Ludmilla Baranski walked out of the market down the street from her apartment. She was carrying three bags of food back to her place. She was typing the code into the keypad when she heard, “Excusez-moi.” Ludmilla looked to her right and saw a dark-haired woman walking up to her. “Mon téléphone est mort, pourriez-vous me donner l’heure?” She asked her.

“I apologize, my French is horrible. What did you ask me?” Ludmilla said.

“My apologies, I said that my phone had died and asked if you had the time.” The dark-haired woman said.

Ludmilla looked at her watch and told her what time it was. “Merci à vous, passez une bonne journée.” The woman told her as she walked off.

“And to you.” Ludmilla said with a smile on her face.

Back at the apartments the team was renting, Hannah was talking to Denise and Talitha. “No, I’m sure of it. When I walked past her and asked for the time, her accent slipped. She might have a Polish passport, but she’s British. The accent is either Liverpool, Manchester, or Lancashire.”

“Ok, that will make this whole thing much easier then. Tali, can you ask Chiam to put a request in for all information about women fitting her description?” Denise asked. Tali picked up her phone and made the call.

“What do you mean this will be easier?” Hannah asked Denise.

“If she has a Polish passport, I’d bet twenty to one that Ludmilla Baranski isn’t her birth name.” Denise explained as she started to compose an email to her boss at Langley.

“I’ll make sure that everyone knows.” Hannah told her walking to her room.

Two days later, Ludmilla was sitting at Cafe de Roma checking her email when she noticed a man sitting across the aisle from her looking at her. She smiled at him, and he smiled back and then looked away. Finishing what she was doing on her computer, she shut it down and packed everything up and walked out. She was down the street and began to cross over after looking both ways. As she got out into the road, a white SUV came racing past her missing her by inches. She jumped back on the sidewalk and tried to calm her breathing. Her heart was racing, and she was shaking from almost having been hit by a car. An older couple asked if she was ok and if they needed to call the Gendarmerie for her. She thanked them but said no and that she just needed to relax a minute before continuing home. After this incident, she decided to take a taxi home.

“Yes, Colour Sergeant, thank you for letting me know ... No, that was perfect ... Of course, I’ll bring it over around dinner.” Hannah said as she disconnected the call.

“What happened?” Steven asked.

“Apparently there was a chance to add a bit of drama to Ludmilla’s life today. She was trying to cross the road and almost got ‘hit’ by a white SUV.” Hannah told him.

“Did it shake her up pretty good?” Denise asked walking through the front door. “And what is that smell, it smells wonderful.”

“She sat down on the sidewalk for almost 15 minutes before she got a taxi and took it home. By the way, tell Tali that her idea was right. The better-looking apartment is her primary residence.” Hannah said. “As for what I’m making, it’s my family’s spaghetti sauce recipe.”

“We’re having homemade sauce tonight?” Robert asked as he got up off the couch. He walked into the kitchen and saw how much Hannah was making. “YES!!! Leftovers.”

“This is for the SBS guys that are in town. I felt bad about us eating so good, and well...” Hannah said as she motioned to all her work.

“I’m sure they’ll appreciate it sister.” Steven said to her. “By the way, I wanted to ask, how much of a difference does fresh oregano and basil make in the taste?”

“It’s noticeable.” Hannah said.

Talitha came out from the back pulling a suitcase behind her and stopped. “Robert, are you ready?” She asked.

“Yep, let me grab the keys.” He replied.

“Michael is gonna pick you up in Pittsburgh?” Denise asked

“Yes. He and the girls have been there for a couple days. He picked up his early birthday gift at the Dodge dealer yesterday.” Talitha replied.

“Did you get him the 2500 with 4-wheel drive?” Steven asked her.

“Yes, but I went a bit overboard. He told me he only wanted something that would go through the snow and that he did not need more. I got him the diesel Laramie package instead. He loves it.” Tali told him with a huge smile.

“I’m kind of jealous honey.” Denise replied giving her a hug. “I’m seriously starting to re-evaluate my life after seeing how happy you are. Does he know that the house and land are paid for?”

“Yes, we have no secrets from each other. I just may not have told him how MUCH we split up after Afghanistan.” Tali replied with a grin. “But he knows generally what happened.”

“Be sure to send us pictures when Michael finishes putting everything where you want it.” Hannah said. “Western Pennsylvania is going to have snow three days from now, send us some pics of your little angels out in it please.”

Talitha hugged everyone there and went back to her bags. “My friends, you be safe here. Do not take any chances if you do not have to. If you get killed, I will knock your casket over and kick your ass in the middle of your funeral.”

Robert came around the corner and picked up one of her bags. “Come on Bruce Lee-Ann, let’s get you to your flight.” He said as they walked out.

Dom and Laura were walking in as they came out the door. “Be safe Tali, be sure to send pictures if you can.” he said giving her a hug.

Laura whispered in Tali’s ear for a couple of moments. When she was finished, Talitha started to tear up. She kissed Laura’s cheek in return. They both smiled and her and Dom walked into the apartment.

“What did you say to her?” Steven asked.

“My grandparents had an old Apache prayer that’s been passed down for a couple hundred years according to them. They used to say it whenever we’d go home from their house. It says for the traveler to have faith that our ancestors watch over them and asks them to protect the traveler and to bring them back safely again.” She told him.

“Did you speak it in Apache?” He asked her. Laura just nodded her head as she looked for something to drink in the refrigerator.

“That’s beautiful Laura...” Denise said. She turns back to Hannah. “When’s dinner?”

The next day, Ludmilla was walking back from the bus station after her run when she noticed a white SUV as she walked to her building. Passing right by it, she looked in and saw it was unoccupied. She felt the hood to see if it had been used recently. It was cold so she made a mental note to watch for it when she was out and about. She typed the code to get into her building and made it up to her apartment. Opening the window that faced the street, she watched as a pair of men walked over to the SUV and got in. They started it up but didn’t drive off. Ludmilla pulled out a small monocular and tried to see what they were doing. She saw one of them writing on a notepad and the other was making a phone call. Closing the window, she started a tentative plan to leave Paris. She loved it there and didn’t want to leave. But if there was someone searching for her, there was nothing she could do about it.

The next morning, Ludmilla woke up early and opened her window. She slid a small webcam out onto the windowsill and rotated it up and down the street to see if the white SUV was still there. The hi-resolution camera did a great job of showing her the smallest detail about what was on the street. When she didn’t see it, she breathed a sigh of relief. Her rational mind was telling her not to let her guard down, but she relaxed somewhat.

Walking out of her building, Ludmilla walked across the street to the trattoria and ordered herself something for breakfast. Sitting on a stool waiting for her order, she noticed a man looking at her on the other side of the restaurant. The server handed him his food and he got up and walked over and sat down next to her.

The man took her hand and kissed the top of her knuckles. “I apologize for staring at you so hard. It is not every day that I see someone as beautiful as you bless my path in life.” He said to her as he put her hand back on the counter. “Please have a good day and week.” When he was finished, he got up and walked over to an older Mercedes sedan and drove off.

Not knowing what to think as he drove off. He watched as he looked back over and winked at her. She smiled and mouthed “thank you” to him as he drove away. Finally getting her food, she had a spring in her step as she walked back over to her building and into her apartment.

A few hours later, Ludmilla came back out of her place and started to walk over to the bus stop. Before she crossed the road, she looked down the street and saw another white SUV. Not thinking much of it, she kept walking. When she got closer to the vehicle, she saw that it was running and had a man in the driver’s seat. After she got past it, she stopped and took a mirror out of her purse and held it up like she was checking her makeup. She saw another man come out of the backseat and walk across the street. Putting her mirror away, she walked on to her destination.

Ludmilla got off the metro near Louvre and walked over to the cafe outside the entrance. Sitting down, she looked into the bar and caught the eye of a server. After ordering, she pulled her laptop out and started answering emails. Her cappuccino came and she forgot about life for a few minutes. Having not gotten the email she was looking for, she packed up her stuff, paid for her drink and walked back to the metro.

On the train back to her place, Ludmilla was looking in the window and noticed a man staring at her. She tried to think if she knew him from somewhere since he looked familiar. Looking to see what station they were at, she got up to get off the train. When she picked up her pack, she started walking towards the door to get off. The man sat in his seat and was looking at his phone. She got off the train and walked to the station exit. When she got clear of the station, she broke into a light jog to put some distance between her and the station.

When she was a few blocks away, she found an Internet cafe and went in. She sat down so she could see who was walking past the front of the store and could see who came in. She pulled her laptop out and started an email to her client about how she thought she was being followed and that she would get in touch with him a couple days later.

An hour later, Ludmilla closed up her laptop and got onto one of the systems in the cafe. She surfed around while watching for people watching her. She made another tentative plan to get back to her apartment. Having given herself another hour, she got up, paid for her time on the computer, and walked outside. Looking for a restaurant close by, she saw a pizza place and made her way there. She walked in and went to the lady’s room. When she got there, she locked the door to the stall and pulled out another shirt and sweatshirt from her pack. She changed her clothing and put her long strawberry blond hair up under a beanie cap. Unlocking the stall door, she walked out and started to make her way home.

When she got on the same street as her apartment, she noticed that same white SUV. Only this time, the man in the passenger seat was watching people walk down the street. She started to walk with a limp so that he would ignore her. He looked at her once and then looked away. When she got to the front door, she typed in the code for the keypad and walked in. She ran to her apartment and quickly unlocked her door. She looked around to see if anyone had been there. She walked into the bathroom and grabbed the toilet brush holder. She reached underneath it and felt the flash drive with all her information on it. No one would really touch the toilet brush holder since they knew what it was for. She walked over to the nightstand next to the bed. She reached under it and removed the false back that she had built for it. Her electronic equipment was still there and hadn’t been disturbed. Walking over to the closet, she looked for the strand of her hair that she’d stuck to both doors before she went out. It was missing, so she knew someone had been in the closet. Ludmilla walked over to her nightstand and grabbed the RF detector and turned it on. She scanned her whole apartment for listening devices and found none. Putting it away, she took out he white noise maker and turned it on. She’d had this made for her by the Turkish secret service after she’d done a job for them last year. It was bigger than she’d have liked, but the battery lasted twelve hours before it needed charging and worked in a radius of 30 meters in all directions.