Black And White Ops

“I’m glad you got here,” he told her. “I’m not so sure about the agency’s plans for getting us out of here. Oh, this is Monique, she’s coming with me.”

“How does she fit into this mess?” the station chief asked him.

“She’s my fiancée,” he told her and Monique gave him a big hug.

“Great,” she commented. “Two to go. Now why don’t you tell me just what happened to send the SVR scurrying all over St. Petersburg.”

Rick went over what had happened, starting with him being contacted by the agency in Washington DC and his planting the bomb in the office building near where Monique had taught English. He went to great lengths to let the station chief know about her innocence in the whole matter and how she had nothing to do with the operation until he took it on himself to break into her apartment and ask for help. He concluded by talking about the last few hours and how he’d been forced to recover the super drive and commandeer a computer at a warehouse.

“So let me get this straight,” the chief said to him. “You set off a bomb in an office which is supposed to have hacked into an American database and use this lady, who you now call your fiancée although you’ve only known her less than two days, to conceal you and then you find out the super drive has been lifted from the dead drop but you get it back and pull a gun in a warehouse to use their computer before meeting me here? Did I cover everything?”

“That about sums it up,” Rick told her. “I don’t think I left much out.”

“Well this is just some kind of bullsh*t,” the chief swore. It was a little strange to see such harsh words coming out of the mouth of a woman dressed like a fashion model who didn’t look eighteen.

“So is there a better way to get out of here than the Trans-Siberian Express?” Rick asked her. “The SVR is going to be watching everything.”

“First of all,” she told him, “do you have any idea what the office was doing when you set-off the bomb?”

“I was told they were hacking a pentagon database and I copied all the files I was supposed to on the super drive,” Rick explained.

“At least we have that,” the chief responded. “Because all hell is breaking loose in Washington over this mess. I don’t have to tell you what it’s going to do with any relationship we had with Moscow.”

“Why?” Rich asked. “It was their people hacking the database, wasn’t it?”

“I wish,” she said. “It would at least give us some closure. You might be interested to know you just blew up a CIA operation.”

Rick stared at her speechless. “But I thought the whole thing was approved by Washington,” he finally spoke up. “Isn’t that why they hired me? To take out the post these clowns were using.”

“Look, it’s been screwed up from the beginning,” she explained. “Someone approved a hack intrusion test to see if the big database could be broken into from Russia. We know it can because they repeatedly did it over and over. I hope the clowns in charge can use the information to better protect the firewalls. The men who were running the operation are all on their way back now. They managed to get them on a plane an hour after the explosion. But it didn’t take the local police long to figure out something wasn’t right about the whole set-up in the office building. They called SVR who knew what was going on. And let me tell you, they are not happy to find out the agency was pulling this stunt under their noses. It’s why they want you, to find out how the operation was pulled-off. You might not know a thing about that end, but they do know two Americans are on the loose in St. Petersburg with some information. So they will find you both unless I can figure out what to do.”

“But why did the agency hire me to plant the bomb?”

“It’s what we’re trying to discover right now,” she explained. “My best guess is that we’ll never know. Probably somebody goofed somewhere and decided to play cowboy. They’ve just caused the worse prairie fire imaginable.”

“Can you get us out?” he asked her.

“I have to,” she said. “I can’t leave you behind for the Russians to find. Heads will be rolling all over the place if that happens. Do you have the super drive?”

“Yes,” Rick told her, “but I don’t have it on me.”

“Exactly what I would say in the similar situation,” the chief commented. She tried to look at the Buddha for a while and concentrated. “The extraction will have to be local,” she told him. “I can’t risk you taking the train to Archangel. Too many possibilities for things to go wrong. Did you walk past the suit of Japanese armor by the entrance?”

“Yes, I stopped to look at it when we got here,” Rick said.

“Good,” the chief continued. “Meet me in front of it in twenty-four hours. It will take me that long to make the arrangements. Check this phone number tomorrow by six.” She gave him a slip of paper. I’ll leave any adjustments to the itinerary in there if something should go wrong. You still have your earpiece?”

“I’ve got it in now.”

“Good. Keep it in; I don’t think the SVR know we can tap their channels right now. They’ll find out soon enough, they always do. But in the meantime we have a way of staying one step ahead of them. Have a good day.”

Rick was going to say good bye to her, but the station chief was vanishing down the hall as soon as she finished.

“You heard,” Rick said to Monique. “Change of plans. Looks like no train ride.”

“I’m not disappointed,” she replied. “I wasn’t looking forward to playing Spies on the Oriental Express.”

“Now I have to figure out something we can do till tomorrow,” he told her.

Monique put her head on his chest while no one was looking. “You really can’t think of anything we could be doing, lover? What about that amber room? Can we go back there?”

“I’m tempted, but there is another place we can use,” he said with a smirk.