Chapter 1: Anamnesis

January 2010. London and Langley, Virginia.

Our present and future lives are always shaped by what has gone before.

The future history of Jennifer McEwan, erstwhile slave to Anatoly and Sveta Kustensky, her husband Joseph, her fellow captive Tracy and even Professor Dawney, Jennifer's former lover and research supervisor begins to take shape during a conversation three months after Jennifer disappeared and almost two years before Joseph and Jennifer are reunited in Stockholm.

It is January 2010. Colleagues from the Security Services of The United States (1) and The United Kingdom (2) are holding a telephone conference and the story told to the British police, about the mysterious interrogation of Jennifer McEwan by the CIA is about to cross the Atlantic

"Clyde?"

"Edward! Happy New Year! Just back at work?"

"Yes, unfortunately."

"Not skiing? Don't you usually go, after Christmas?"

"Normally we do, but Grace has been in hospital with appendicitis. I have only popped into the office. I am just about to go home and be a modern man and look after her."

"Oh, gee Edward I am real sorry to hear that. Is she OK?"

"She is out of hospital but she is still quite sore. No skiing this year."

"That's too bad. Still, at least her appendix will not come calling again."

"No, well that's for sure. If it does, I'll be suing the surgeon! Clyde, look this is why I am calling. Can you tell me anything about a Company operation in London is June 2008? We have no record of it. If the facts are as reported, to be quite frank, we will be a bit disappointed that the normal inter-service liaison was not carried out. If it was an emergency it would be different but in that case, you would let us know as soon as you could?"

"Er, Edward, sure. Let me check the operations diary. When did you say it was?"

"June 2008"

"And where?"

"Suffolk. That's east of London. At Inward Bound which is what they call a

'Adult Adventure Centre'. Sort of kinky sex playground." (3)

"Wow, Ed, I didn't think you had those sort of places in England."

"Well frankly, Clyde neither did I."

"Ed, there is nothing coming up at all which should mean there was no operation. Can you give me some details, some context?"

"OK, here is the context. A lady called Jennifer McEwan has disappeared."

"One of yours?"

"No, not at all. No security service or military or any other significant connection at all. Actually that is not quite right. Her father retired from the Army not too long ago but he was not working in a particularly 'sensitive' area. She was writing a PhD thesis and was at this Inward Bound place doing her research."

"Nice work if you can get it huh?"

"Yes, exactly. Anyway she vanished in London on ... er ... Tuesday 11 November last year and has not been heard of since. The Metropolitan Police regard her disappearance as High Risk because she had never gone AWOL before and she did not complete her intentions as the police say, on the day she vanished. When her husband was interviewed, he reported that when she was at Inward Bound, she was arrested by some men who said they were from the CIA. She was held in close confinement somewhere else, interrogated and then released. Her professor who was her research supervisor was also arrested and questioned. We have corroboration for the story from Doctor Corinne Aimes, also a psychologist, who is the CEO at Inward Bound, some of her employees and from her professor, a woman called Dawney."

"Oh ... so what did the CIA team – not that I am admitting it was us, Edward – what did they want?"

"They wanted to know about Anatoly Kustensky and if he had been in contact with McEwan in connection with her research."

"Kustensky? Does your team know him, Ed? I'll have a look at this end."

"Kustensky was with the KGB in London in the 1980's. He took a particular interest in the cruise missile protests at Greenham Common. I'd be surprised if you haven't got a record for him." (4)

"Yep, I have got him. He is on our data base. Kustensky ... we've got a case man assigned to the file but I doubt if he's doing anything unless this Kustensky's being a bad boy somewhere." Clyde pauses. Ed can hear the tap of keys at the other end of the line. "Hmmm, Kustensky seems to have had a change in career ... business ... engineering ... oil and gas ... aha, security. Well, I guess you need security if you are a rich man in Russia."

"We think he is still well-connected."

"Hmmm. More than likely. Ed, its hard for me to understand why we should have mounted an operation to find out about Kustensky's interests in 'Adult Adventures' and he is not a hot case. I guess the best I can do is to look into this and get right back to you. For now let me say, if we have stepped out of the box I am sorry for any unhappiness caused. I will sort out where this one has gone wrong."

"Thank you, Clyde. That is much appreciated."

"Call you at home?"

"Er, well the operation was in 08 so I am sure it can wait. I will be back at work in a couple of weeks."

"Give my best to Grace."

"Will do."

"'Bye now Edward."

"'Bye, Clyde."

Deputy Director Clyde Ritchie works in the Office for Russian and European Analysis, within the Intelligence Directorate of the CIA. He is the permanent liaison officer for the British security services, and has known Edward Black, Director of Operations for the British Internal Security Service MI5, for several years.

After he closes the call, Deputy Director Richie pauses for a moment to think over the story he has been told. Kustensky is not an Agency target and doesn't seem to have been of any special interest even back then. So why would it be worth anyone's while questioning two academics with only a tangential connection with him? Were they all missing something? He makes a short summary of the conversation he has just had and calls Scott Anderson, the last Field Operative to have his sights on Kustensky...

"Scott?"

"Sir..."

"Scott, have you opened your emails yet?"

"No, Sir, I am just getting in."

"Open them, find the email from me and look into the situation will you? Edward Black, from MI5 London has just phoned me, to ask why there had been no liaison about a Company operation near London in ... in June 2008. I checked the operations diary and there was no Company operation corresponding to the details Black supplied, so now I am beginning to feel at a disadvantage. It starts to look as if we don't know what we are doing or that maybe we are not being straight with our partners or maybe we are simply a completely disorganised rabble who can't tell our ass from a hole in the ground and I don't want any of those impressions to get currency, understand?"

"Sir, absolutely."

"So look into it and get back to me. It's your priority for today, understand?"

"Sir."

Scott Anderson boots up his computer, logs on and opens his email account. At the top of the inbox, marked by a red flag, is the email from Deputy Director Clyde Ritchie. Scott opens the email and reads...

By mid-afternoon he has enough to report back to Ritchie.

He calls his office and arranges to meet the Deputy Director.

An Entente Cordial?

"OK Scott, so what have you got?"

"Sir, the first thing is that I can find absolutely no official record of a Company Operation in Suffolk in June 2008. Nothing. I spoke to our people in London and while Kustensky's interest in cruise missiles on behalf of the Soviets was of some concern then, he returned to Moscow in... 1990 and was off our radar screen. He re-appears as a business man after that but was no longer a person of particular focus and he isn't of particular interest to the Agency now, either. He has opened an engineering subsidiary in the US a couple of years ago but there seems to be absolutely no reason why we would have gone after two university people to find out more about him. In any case, why would the Company want to know more about Kustensky's interests in 'Adult Entertainment'? So I do not think the 'CIA' Team had anything to do with us."

"The second thing: I did some research on Kustensky. His father was a famous second world war general and got to be a Hero of the Soviet Union. Kustensky junior was KGB and our records have him in London from 1984 to 1990 where he was interested in the anti-cruise missile protest at Greenham."