by Tom Haase
“That would give us another avenue to get Dmitri to come to us,” Scott said.
“You can use my plane to deliver it if you need to. Is there anything else I can do?”
“Thanks,” Matt said. “Did you find anything on that computer that you haven’t shared?”
Before Scott could answer, Schultz interrupted, “I heard what you said about the names on the hit list, but Gertrude has been in the line of fire on two occasions. So I can’t accept without some reservations that she isn’t a target. We still need to protect her. She’s now guarded by my men, and I recommend she stay there.”
“I agree. I’ll visit her in a few hours and tell her what we’re doing,” Scott said.
They ended the video conference. Matt took a seat on the sofa and looked at Scott.
“Is that all you’re going to do there?” He smiled at Scott. “Again, is there anything else you found on the computer?”
“Get out of my house, you depraved character,” Scott laughed. “Let me show you the material I uncovered.”
“Are there more pictures?” Matt asked when he looked at the screen while Scott rolled through the take from Dmitri’s computer. “These are all of an older lady, presumably his wife.” More pictures scrolled by. “Wait.” Matt pointed at the photo of a young lady. “I’ve seen her before.”
There were more images of the same girl at various stages of her life, from a small child to a young woman at what appeared to be a university. Matt went to the corner and picked up the backpack. He had deposited it there on their return from Schultz’s apartment following the trip to St. Petersburg.
“Pictures and papers,” he said as he dumped the contents on the dining room table.
Matt discarded the two small-framed photos of an older woman, who he supposed to be Dmitri’s wife. He learned that she had died a few years ago. He examined the framed picture of a young woman, perhaps around twenty. A guess would make her a favorite niece or something. He needed to know more about this girl who appeared in so many pictures on Dmitri’s computer. He slid the cardboard backing from the frame and pulled the photo out, turning toward Scott with the picture in his hand.
“What you got?” Scott asked.
“Did you know that Dmitri had a daughter?”
“Never heard of one.”
“Look at this.” He passed it to Scott who looked at the picture and then turned the photo over.
“Good-looking girl. Look at this: ‘To Dad, with all my love. Tasha, 12/2016.’ In English. That’s only a few months ago,” Scott said.
“I never noticed before, but there’s some writing etched in the stone wall behind her. Also, that tree, the one nearly out of the picture on the left, it looks like a palm tree to me. Are there palm trees in Russia?”
“Don’t think so.”
“Me neither. Now I need to get going. I’m heading downtown to see Liz and do a kiss-and-make-up with her before I dump this next job on her.”
Matt stood, and so did Scott.
“Good-bye, Matt. By the way, what project will you give Liz?”
“I’m working on it,” Matt said as he headed for the door.
29
FBI Headquarters
Liz Garcia fumed, her face almost red, as she sat tapping a pencil on her desktop. Matt had again failed to keep her informed of his actions, and the director held her responsible for running his black operations. She served as his control officer and supposedly kept him separate from the rest of the FBI. That aside, she harbored a deep-seated affection for this rogue. They had performed well as a team in the case of the Metro bomber, and again in rescuing that guy Schultz from a motel in Washington. She never allowed her feelings to show. She sometimes wished she could do something to let him see them a little. Right now, he remained devoted to Bridget, but perhaps that would change in the future.
Liz heard Matt open her door. Her office workspace occupied a small area next to the director’s on the top floor. He entered, and Liz’s eyes turned from warm to what could be described as two burning laser beams.
“I’m sorry,” he said before she could get out a word. “I come bearing gifts.” He slid the bouquet of flowers from behind his back.
“Oh, no, you don’t, Matt Higgins.” She took the flowers and tossed them into the trash can next to her desk. “I’m your boss, you have an obligation to keep me in the loop. You welched on that.”
She turned back toward him, and he noticed some of the fiery intensity had departed her eyes.
“I came to ask you to forget that I didn’t keep you updated every step of the way. I’m here to rectify that and to ask for your help in bringing a major arms dealer down.”
“You can’t sweet-talk me like that,” she said. But she relented. “Tell me.”
Matt brought her up to date on his venture to get Dmitri and his failure to apprehend his target. He then described the plan to use Karim to force Dmitri to come to the US.
The door to her office opened again. The director looked at Matt and signaled him to follow. Matt glanced to Liz, who gave him a knife-across-the-throat gesture.
* * *
Matt followed the director, who shut his door and turned to Matt.
“Where the hell have you been? Liz has been covering for you. I can tell she has. You disappeared for a few days. Where did you go?”
“I was following a strong lead on the man who set up the hit on Bridget, Scott and me. I’ve identified him as Dmitri Alexandrovitch, a Russian arms dealer who we encountered during the Savannah operation. He’s the man who’s responsible.”
“How do you know?” the director asked in an unbelieving voice.
“We found the email in which he contracted for the hits.”
“Found?” the director asked.
Matt chose to sidestep the question. “Now I want to use Karim to set up a sting operation on the man to get him to come here to the US.” He knew this was his best plan, and the painting scheme would be his second option. He didn’t want to confuse the director with multiple plans. He needed to get this one approved.
“You can’t bring him down by yourself. You’re asking me to release a known terrorist for you to use as bait. The DIA and CIA would crap in their pants if they knew. I would be hung out to dry after being forced to resign. No fucking way, Matt. Not possible.”
The director shook his head to add emphasis to his decision.
“I know this’ll work. We could build enough leverage to cause him to come here.”
“What leverage? You can’t bank on Karim. He hasn’t given us a thing in the time we’ve had him. You think you can get him to do anything for you? I don’t think so. Forget it. You don’t have anything to use against Dmitri.” The director pointed Matt to the door.
When he returned to Liz’s office, she exhibited an “I told you so” look.
“You need to keep me informed at all times. I felt that you deliberately didn’t answer your phone and didn’t ask for any assistance for three days. So, you visited Russia. You owe me for not telling the director that you went off-reservation, but I think he guessed that I covered for you. You need to put this whole thing out of your mind. I know he told you to forget it.”
“Thank you for the reminder. But now I need another favor.”
“What? You have to be kidding.” Her eyes rotated in their sockets.
“I’m not. I took a picture that I need analyzed. If your technical specialist, Libby Thompson, could use her skills like she did in the case we solved against the D.C. bomber, I might have another avenue to explore.”
“Why do you want it run through our techs? This is going to cause me more grief. Remember, we’re trying to keep you out of regular FBI channels. Make it good.”
“I think it’s Dmitri’s daughter, and I’d like to know more about her. You never know, but this information might be the key to solving the problem of finding the bastard.”
“Sounds good. Let’s go.” Liz got up and led him to where Libby worked. “Libby knows who
you are, but she has no idea of your new role. Let’s keep it that way.”
They reached Libby’s desk, and Libby stood up and gave Matt a hug. “I’ve been following your adventures. Liz keeps me posted. Sorry to hear about Bridget.”
Matt felt the bile rise in his throat. He couldn’t help himself. At most times, he could manage his reactions, but the image of Bridget lying in the alley reappeared without warning in his mind. He fought to regain control, and in a few seconds he accomplished it.
So much for Libby not knowing anything. He surmised from this that Liz apparently kept her informed as an old friend of his activity but hadn’t enlightened her on his black ops for the agency. He would have to watch what he said.
Libby gave Liz a nod. “What brings you down to the bowels of technical?”
“I obtained a picture that I thought you might work your magic on.” Matt handed her the photo, and he noticed his hands still shook from the emotional experience of a few seconds ago.
“This stays between us,” Liz said in a low voice to prevent anyone else in the room from hearing.
“Got it,” Libby said. “Give me a few hours. I suppose you want to know who this girl is, where she is, and what she had for dinner?”
“Skip the dinner for now,” Matt said and gave her a smile. “We’ll come back when you give Liz a call.”
They returned to Liz’s office. After they sat, Liz broke the silence that had dominated since they’d left Libby’s office.
“What are you planning?”
“I’m going to set up Karim with an operation to market arms from Dmitri to terrorists here in the US, and you’re going to get me the money I need to pull it off. I’ll be the singular customer he sells to. No Fast and Furious screw-ups this time.”
“I know the director gave tentative approval for your idea before you visited Karim, but I don’t think he envisioned funding a large-scale sting, and he told you to forget it.”
“He denied me permission to go ahead with my plan a few minutes ago. That’s true, sort of,” Matt lied. “We’d accomplish a great thing if I can pull this off.”
“So what are you going to do now? I assume you won’t quit because the director didn’t give his approval. If you continue to go after him, you will piss the man off. Are you planning on taking Dmitri alive? I want to know. I won’t be a party to this whole thing if it’s a vendetta operation for you. That is, presuming you’re working on a way to get approved for this.”
“I am, and it isn’t. Sure, I’d love to kill him, but we plan to take him alive to extract what we can out of him. Satisfied?”
“Give me a few hours. I’ll call you.”
Matt left her office and went to a local Starbucks. He hated lying to Liz. Two times in almost as many minutes. He wanted to kill Dmitri. No question. He would learn all he could about the arms dealer’s empire, but one way or another, he would terminate the man who had ordered Bridget’s murder. The rage over Bridget’s death started to boil up in his mind. It always brought on a feeling of emptiness in his soul. He took a deep breath and tried to relax. He regained control of his emotions, because he recognized the danger of not complying with the rules of the FBI if he wanted to walk away clean after this concluded.
An hour passed before his phone rang.
“Matt, get back here,” Liz said without preamble. “Libby has something. She said she knows who the girl is and her current location.”
30
Dmitri’s Daughter
Matt gave Libby a smile when he had arrived at her desk. Liz trailed behind.
“What do you have for me?” he asked in his most pleasant voice.
“You sure know how to pick ’em. The young lady is Tasha Alexandrovitch. She’s the daughter of Dmitri Alexandrovitch from St. Petersburg, Russia. She’s currently on a student visa, so it would be a simple matter to locate her, and she is presently studying at the Savannah College of Art and Design.”
“You’re kidding,” Matt got out. “Not Savannah again. But I do believe palm trees grow there.”
“I never kid about my work. That is who and where she is. No mistake.”
“I need another favor. Can you create a complete background with credentials to make someone a verifiable big-time art buyer?”
“Who’s this for?”
“I’ll let you know tomorrow.”
Liz punched him in the back but didn’t say anything. She must have guessed what he had planned for her.
“Piece of cake,” Libby said. At that moment, a young man dressed in jeans and a sport coat came up to Libby’s desk.
“Ready to go to lunch?” He had a neatly trimmed black beard with an accompanying mustache, and he wore a visitor’s badge.
Matt only glanced at him before Libby got up to leave.
“Anything to help,” Libby said. She departed with her lunch partner, and Matt headed away, followed by Liz.
He arrived outside the director’s office with Liz.
“Am I the art dealer?” Liz queried.
“Yes, but that’s the backup plan. I’ll explain later. Now I need to get the director to change his mind.”
The director stepped out of his office when he encountered the two of them approaching Liz’s space.
“What now?” he asked.
“May I take a minute to explain something to you?” Matt asked.
They went into the inner office, and the director indicated for them to take a seat. “What is it?”
“I think I found the leverage to make my plan work. I need you to give me approval to take Karim out of the safe house and to set up a false arms operation. I know where the weak link in the target’s armor is. He has a daughter, a student, here in the US. I can use that.”
“How?”
“Perhaps it’s better that you don’t know,” Liz added.
“I don’t like it. I can almost visualize what you’re going to do. It can’t be sanctioned.”
“Sir, you know what it would mean if we could crack the arms shipments to the US and the routes used to get them here. They must all use similar methods for delivery of the weapons, and we can round up more than this one with some new knowledge. We’re only guessing now and are trying hit-or-miss ops against them, which haven’t been entirely successful. I can fix that and arrest a major crime boss in one play.”
“You can get us all fired,” the director said and shook his head. “Now get out.”
Matt returned to Liz’s office. He noticed the flowers now resided on her desk.
“I think your plan is to pretend to break Karim out of our custody, set up an arms operation and capture this bigwig without Bureau assets. You’re crazy,” Liz said.
“Do you want this man taken down? Besides, the director didn’t forbid it. He kicked me out of the office. He didn’t say no this time.” Matt smiled.
“I know that Dmitri tried to kill an FBI agent, murdered an innocent woman, and also attempted to kill two others,” Liz answered. “So, yes, I want him taken down.
“To implement your plan, you’ll need funding, and I control a sizable stash of money for operations. I’m willing to put myself on the line, and the director is going to be on a road trip to visit offices across the country for about two weeks. I can help you with Karim. But you had better make this work, or you’re going to be viewing the world from a jail cell.”
Matt stood and nodded in agreement.
“If word of this gets out, or Karim’s departure is discovered, I can’t help you. As the old saying goes, ‘I’ll deny all knowledge of this operation.’ You will be on your own.”
Liz stood and approached Matt. “So let me put it bluntly.” She stood only a few inches from Matt’s face. “If it fails, you’re looking at a long prison sentence for helping a terrorist escape, because this agency will come after you as a criminal. If you’re successful, and you capture the arms dealer, your man Karim is still going to Gitmo or a federal pen. Understand?”
Matt nodded.
�
��Those are the only possible outcomes for your operation,” Liz said. “The piper has to be paid. Someone goes to prison. I don’t want it to be you or me. Now go.”
31
Scott Explains to Gerti
Scott snuggled up against Gerti after their lovemaking following lunch. The house they occupied, with the Schultz guards outside, nestled against a small rise in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northern Virginia. The view from the bedroom provided a spectacular sight, overlooking the floor of the lower Shenandoah Valley.
“We have to stop meeting like this.” Gerti ribbed him as she said this. “I mean it, we need to get on with our lives. I feel like a nun in a convent secluded here, away from you.”
“It won’t be forever. I only want to be sure you’re safe. Matt’s working on a plan now, and I’ve made a backup one.”
“What is it?” Gerti said with some excitement in her voice.
He explained his idea of using the painting to entice Dmitri to come out of Russia.
“Where are you going to secure such a valuable piece of art?”
“Matt’s going to use the FBI resources to locate the person who has it—or, more likely, buy it at the upcoming auction. He then plans to resell it to Dmitri, since we know he ordered it purchased,” Scott said.
“You’re kidding. That’s the plan?” Gerti asked.
“I think it has a chance of working,” Scott said defensively.
“Sure,” Gerti said as she got out of bed. “I’ll make the drinks in a minute. You’re staying here tonight.” She gave him a kiss and headed for the bathroom.
Scott entered the living room, where he took a seat in a comfortable wingback chair and waited for his wife. She appeared and asked, “So how is this going to work?”
“At the auction, we’ll outbid whoever is trying to get it for Dmitri and then offer to sell it for a profit. This will allow us to set up surveillance on the one who picks up the art. We’ll follow it to Dmitri, and we’ll nab him.”
