Baksheesh (Bribes)

by D S Kane

  She scowled. “And what message am I bearing now?”

  “I don’t know. But I think you are frustrated because you don’t yet grasp it, and its importance will emerge if you truly want to find out what it is.”

  She frowned and looked down at her hands. “Can you help me?”

  He smiled and nodded. “Maybe. Tell me the truth this time. Do you miss the spy game?”

  She watched the waves, their tips glowing pink as the rolled toward into the brightening day. “Yes. Why?”

  “You are the fourth generation of spies. Your great grandfather spied for Czar Nickolas before he was assassinated. Your grandfather worked for Stalin to help steal the blueprints for the hydrogen bomb. And your uncle Misha, my brother, was a spy for Brezhnev and Gorbachev. It’s in our blood.”

  She stood with her hands still, at her sides, until her fists flexed. “How did you and Mom meet?” She’d never been able to get him to talk about her parents’ lives in the Soviet Union.

  He sighed. “It’s time I told you the truth. Past time I told you.”

  It was an hour before she returned to the house and found Ann and Lee in the restaurant sitting at a table drinking coffee. Lee looked up from his cup. “Where were you?”

  She marched in and pulled pots and pans from cupboards. “I jogged along the shore and bumped into Daddy.”

  Ann pulled her notebook computer from its case. She keyed a password and the computer sprang to life. “I’m gonna do homework.”

  Cassie nodded. She took chairs off the other tables and set them with napkins and silverware.

  Lee caught her looking around. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”

  “I thought all this would make me happy. Being back on home turf, being safe, living a normal life, having enough money to feel comfortable no matter what. But I’m missing something. Until now I couldn’t figure it out.”

  Lee frowned. “You’re still addicted to Washington. Don’t lie, it was a thrill and you’ll never be happy here.”

  From the staircase, Ann turned, her face a fireworks of emotion. “Not!” She shook her head. “No way. Glad to be gone from there. Right, Mom?”

  But below the veneer of her life as Andrea, Cassie wasn’t so sure. Just the mention of Washington stirred her in a perverse way. Her entire family were spies, she the fourth generation and Ann the fifth, a budding hacker.

  Her face transformed in a dreamy swirl. “I talked with Dad this morning. Before the alarm clock got you all up. It’s a very interesting story. See, two decades ago, they all worked together…”

  * * *

  Kiril Sashakovich stood at the Montara lighthouse long after his daughter jogged off. He remembered the story he’d just told her, but this time, tears welled in his eyes. It was a truth he’d concealed for decades.

  The world was a simple place in the old days. One block from the Lubyanka adjacent to Red Square, he had held a tattered notebook firmly under his arm. Just thirty years old, he and his brother Misha walked through the gray-walled Central Mathematics Economic Institute. The third floor was ruled by Commissar Natasha Cruzinko, a gorgeous but formidable woman. Kiril worked levels below the woman and had never met her. A budding economist on the Committee for Economic Forecasting, he reported to A. R. Markov. Markov taught him advanced econometric forecasting methodologies that expanded the Kondratieff cycle to use Leontief’s input-output waves to forecast the future. His work had brought him to notice by the KGB. And Misha was one of their best field agents.

  Misha smiled as they walked. “She’s not so bad. She’ll probably only bite your head off and swallow it in one gulp. Not nearly as bad as my field ops director, Nikita Pushkin.”

  Kiril gulped. “Isn’t Pushkin related to the head of KGB?” He stopped and waited for an answer.

  “Da. But what good is communism if nepotism can’t betray its convictions?” Misha chortled, a deep belly-throttling rolling snort.

  “So why does she want to meet me? All I do is operate computers to produce five-year plans.”

  “You have the wrong idea, dear brother. Tasha isn’t the monster all believe she is. She’s a hot, sexy woman. She requested that I introduce you. Not demanded.”

  Kiril’s brows knotted. “I’m a sacrificial lamb. Being led to slaughter.”

  Misha almost fell over laughing. “I believe you’ll like her.” He started walking again.

  Kiril touched Misha’s shoulder to stop his brother. “Wait. Tell me one thing. Is it true she was once the mistress of the head of KGB? Vladimir Pushkin?”

  “Da. And before that, Nikita Pushkin, my boss. A capitalistic communist. Some say the Pushkins will rule all Russia some day.

  * * *

  Cassie finished her story with a single sentence. “And they did rule all of Russia. That is until Shimmel and his men captured Nikita Tobelov, formerly Nikita Pushkin, and handed him over to the Israelis.”

  Ann had returned down the staircase to listen to the story. She rose from her seat and was right at Cassie’s face. “Mom, this is way too big a coincidence to be true.”

  Cassie smiled wistfully. “That’s what I thought. But that’s the easy part to follow. Shimmel told me that Tobelov confessed some provocative details of Russia’s plans if we didn’t stop the war from happening.” She took a deep breath. “Pushkin assumed that the war on Islam and Judaism would take all of America’s military might and take years to finish, and that we’d likely lose. After all, we’d be exterminating close to three billion people. Worse by far than the Holocaust.”

  Lee shook his head. “Monsters. Our government is filled with them.”

  Cassie nodded. “Maybe so. But while we bled ourselves to death, Russia would prepare its own attack against us. A nuclear strike to take out Washington when we were too weak and preoccupied to defend ourselves. Russia would become what Rome once was. A global dictatorship. So we’ve managed to escape a terrible fate. Not America. The whole world.” She sat down. “A fate we came so close to. Lee, it’s not just our government filled with evil people. It’s governments everywhere. Without the ability to form compromises, without checks and balances that work, we’re all subject to the whims of megalomaniacs.”

  Ann and Lee both remained silent.

  Cassie continued. “I can’t sit here and just run a tiny restaurant with the world teetering on the brink, pushed and pulled by power-hungry crazies with private agendas. I’m bored to death. I want to go back. I hate Washington but with all the work Wing did to set up an iron-clad set of identities for us, it shouldn’t be a problem. And everyone who wanted me dead, well, they’re all gone and buried.

  Ann’s face was a myriad of emotions too complex for Cassie to read.

  Cassie nodded at them both. “I’m putting it to a vote. I want to return to Washington. Shimmel owns Swiftshadow and I’ll just be an employee. Ann, you value Swiftshadow’s work. Lee, so do you.”

  When she called him by his real name, his face brightened like the sun emerging from behind clouds. Lee nodded.

  Cassie’s lips tightened against her teeth as she formed the words. “It has to be unanimous. Who wants to go and help the world to stay safe?”

  But at that moment, Cassie’s water broke. “Uh, oh, looks like I’m in labor.”

  * * *

  Vladimir Pushkin listened as one of his intelligence operatives finished the report. He frowned and shook his head. “Are you sure he’s alive?”

  “Da, Mr. President. Tobelov is in Mossad prison, guarded in a highly secure environment. Even a frontal assault could not breach their defenses.”

  “Spasibo, Major Sokol. You can go now.” When the heavy doors snapped closed, Pushkin stroked his chin. “Ah, Nicky, what am I to do with you now?” He reviewed his options. Mossad would by now know the entire story. He was sure they’d have chosen to share parts of it with the American Vice President, Carl Hernandes. And, with Mastoff in a coma, if the acting President figured it out, there would be reprisals. The CIA would be filtering through the bo
rders of Russia even now, and preparing to take revenge. He didn’t have long, if he was to survive.

  He could deny his involvement. But they must know Tobelov was his brother. No, that wouldn’t work. He could carry out the plan the deceased former American President and President Mastoff had both been planning before one got himself arrested for treason and the other had a coronary.

  Yes, he still had more than enough suitcase nukes. There had actually been over three hundred manufactured back in the 1980s. And he’d given about two hundred and fifty to UN arms inspectors. And fourteen more to his brother. He still had forty-three left. Placed properly, they would draw America into a world war with the Arab countries and destroy Israel in the process. If it worked, Russia would be the largest surviving world power, by default.

  Not a bad plan. He’d need a major power as an ally. Could he interest China? He picked up the telephone receiver. There were several calls he’d have to make right now. He’d call the most important one first. Someone capable of the wet work he needed done.

  “Bring back Dmitri Sokol.”

  CHAPTER 44

  August 22, 11:14 a. m.

  The Swiftshadow Group Headquarters,

  2099 K Street NW, Washington, DC

  She walked from the elevator into the office’s reception area, the baby strapped against her back in a papoose-style baby sack. This floor layout was new and foreign. Ten feet from the elevator behind her she saw the red-haired woman at the large reception desk with the red-and-blue “SG” logo. She sighed quietly as she walked forward. The brown floppy hat hid her face.

  She scanned the area past reception. So many cubicles. Men and woman hurried down the aisles, time their biggest obstacle. This was somehow surprising, and a sharp pang played within her heart.

  “May I help you?” Judy Hernandez couldn’t see the woman’s face under the hat’s brim.

  “I’m here to see Shimmel. And I don’t have an appointment.” The reddish scar on her right cheek itched. Behind her, the baby gurgled. She reached behind her and touched its cheek with her fingers. “Hush, Evan.”

  With the movement of her arm, the front of the hat’s brim pulled back exposing her face.

  In front of her, Judy’s jaw dropped. Just above a whisper, her jaw moved and words came forth swiftly. “Cassie?”

  She held her finger across her lips. “Yes. I’m alive. And I’m back. Is Avram here?”

  Hernandez shook her head with the thought of how capable her friend was of duplicity. “Welcome back.”

  Yes, she thought. Another day, another chance.

  Glossary

  AFI. Intelligence branch of the Israeli Air Force.

  aleph. Lead kidon, the assassin leading an execution mission for the Mossad.

  Aman. Intelligence branch of the IDF (Israeli Military Intelligence).

  asset. A civilian in a foreign country who claims to have valuable contacts or information useful to a case officer. The primary objective of most case officers is to develop in-country assets.

  ayin. Tracker (surveillance) for the Mossad.

  backstopping. Fake identification papers.

  bat leveyha. Female agent for the Mossad.

  better world, send to a. Euphemism for murdering an enemy agent.

  blind dating. Meeting place chosen by an agent to meet his or her handler.

  bodel. Courier for the Mossad.

  BP. Israeli paramilitary Border Patrol.

  Bug-Lok. Also called DeathByte, the device is a nanobug that can be ingested or injected into a subject. Bug-Lok was developed by the Ness Ziona in Herzliyya on contract with Gilbert Greenfield’s intelligence service. When injested or injected, the nanobug then finds its way to the medulla oblongata of the subject and attaches itself to the neural bundles that carry visual and auditory signals into the subject’s brain. The nanobug transmits these signals to the nearest local area network and from there onto the handler who gathers video and audio of the subject’s activities in addition to the subject’s GPS location. Bug-Lok can be fitted with a tiny concentrated ricin dose to kill the subject, activated by a remote when the handler no longer needs the subject.

  burn notice. A termination notice for an official operative or an NOC; the burned spy has his or her bank accounts confiscated and identity documents redacted, and, in extreme cases, is subject to a terminate-on-sight order.

  C-6. A more powerful and concentrated form of the C-4 explosive.

  Chinese Secret Intelligence Services (CSIS). Chinese version of the FBI.

  CHIPS. The Clearinghouse Interface Processing System, used by money-center banks to settle all outstanding transactions between them at the end of their day.

  Collections Department. Intelligence Department abroad

  cutout. An intermediary, usually an innocent person, either a volunteer or paid by a covert operative to deliver or retrieve something valuable such as a message or a gadget, from a covert operative or an asset.

  DARPA. Defense Department’s agency for advanced research projects, charged with development of weapons systems.

  daylight alert. Highest priority alert.

  DDOS. Distributed denial of service; a brute-force method of bringing down a website, by overloading it with traffic. Rarely used successfully by any except the most desperate and skillful of hackers.

  dry cleaning. Counter-surveillance techniques.

  ECHELON. An identity-tracking system developed by contract programmers and used by the United States as its primary terrorism prevention system prior to 9/11. There are currently in excess of forty systems developed since 9/11, used by the NSA to track the identities, activities and locations of US citizens and foreigners.

  EFT. Electronic Funds Transfer, the basic term denoting a non-check payment.

  EMP. Electromagnetic pulse device that unleashes a high-energy discharge that fries all electronic devices within its range.

  exfiltrate. To retrieve an agent from hostile territory.

  Farm, The. A camp in Virginia used to train CIA case officers and the case officers of intelligence services friendly to the United States.

  FISA. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC, also called the FISA Court), was established and authorized under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to oversee requests by federal law enforcement agencies.for surveillance warrants against suspected foreign intelligence agents inside the United States

  FSB. The Russian internal security and counterintelligence service, created in 1994 as one of the successor agencies of the Soviet-era KGB.

  false flagging. An operation falsely made to appear mounted by another country.

  fumigate. Sweeping an area for electronic bugs.

  GNU Radio. Developed by Eric Blossom, a free and open-source software development toolkit that provides signal processing blocks to implement software radios. It can be used with readily available low-cost external RF hardware to create software-defined radios, or without hardware in a simulation-like environment. Prior to his involvement with software radio, Blossom was the cofounder and CTO of Starium, Ltd., where he oversaw the design and development of a line of cryptographic equipment for the commercial marketplace. He is also the founder of an international consulting company called Blossom Research.

  go bag. A lightweight luggage carrier used by covert operatives to carry travel essentials, including emergency clothing and sundries, weapons and ammunition. When not being used, it is typically stored, fully loaded, near a door or under a window for fast access. A mission bag, in contrast, is used to carry all the tools and supplies, including weapons, for a covert action.

  heth. Logistician for the Mossad.

  honey trap. Sexual entrapment for intelligence purposes.

  IDF. Israel Defense Forces; the Israeli army.

  katsa. Case officer for the Mossad.

  KGB. Soviet Union’s secret police, the Komitet Gosudarstvennoi Bezopanosti was established in March 1954 in Moscow and was attached to the Council of M
inisters, but operated independently. With over 500,000 employees, it was the largest spy agency in the world.

  Liquid armor, or shear thickening fluid (STF). Developed by the US Army in 2003, STF can stop a .38 caliber bullet, but improved versions can stop anything up to a .50 caliber shell

  kidon. Operative specializing in assassination for the Mossad. (plural: kidonim.)

  Krav Maga. Israeli martial art developed by Aman and used by IDF and Mossad. Now taught to many of the global spy agencies.

  MI-6. Also known as Great Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service.

  Mossad. The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations; originally called the Institute for Coordination; called “the Office” by those who work there.

  Ness Ziona. Israeli weapons laboratory, located in Herzliyya, Israel. The Ness Ziona currently is also used for medical research, including a vaccine to prevent cancer.

  neviot. Surveillance specialist for the Mossad.

  NI. Intelligence branch of the Israeli navy.

  NOC. Non-official cover; the status of a contractor working with the CIA in-country and without sanction or cover from the Agency.

  NSA. National Security Agency; formed under the Truman administration and used as the technology management arm of the United States government.

  Office, The. The name of the Mossad used by most of its case officers (katsas).

  qoph. Communications officer for the Mossad.

  RAID. Redundant array of independent disks; used as a physical non-cloud device for backup of high-value data.

  RSA. An encryption algorithm, or key, used to safely send messages between parties on the Internet.

  S-13 Russian World War II Submarine. S-13 was a Stalinets-class submarine of the Soviet Navy. Her keel was laid down by Krasnoye Sormovo in Gorky on 19 October 1938. She was launched on 25 April 1939 and commissioned on 31 July 1941 in the Baltic Fleet, under the command of Captain Pavel Malantyenko. About 600 tons, this sub carries 12 torpedoes, 6 torpedo tubes, has a mounted 100mm machine gun and a 45mm cannon on its deck. S-13 was decommissioned on 7 September 1954.