Divide & Conquer

by McDonald, Murray

  Vincent sat back and listened as the Head of the Intelligence Division detailed the process and paperwork involved in passing information across to other agencies on an ongoing investigation. The list of procedures and checklists was endless. He actually wondered how they ever managed to achieve anything with such a ridiculous amount of bureaucracy and red tape.

  After over two hours of discussion and analysis, they came to the conclusion that there was little they could have done differently. The problem wasn’t at their end. The FBI and Homeland had dropped the ball; it was their asses on the line and not the CIA’s. It was their procedure and their ass covering that had alerted the terrorists. Problem solved. At least for everyone at the CIA perhaps but Vincent was thinking of someone outside of the CIA. A thought that might just make save a number of people’s jobs.

  As the group stood up to leave, Vincent stayed seated. “Charles, would you mind if I just run something past you?”

  “Of course,” replied Charles, herding the others out the room.

  Vincent waited until the door closed behind his colleagues and he and Charles were alone.

  “What if we had an operative planted so deep domestically that he didn’t even know he was there himself?” he began.

  Chapter 79

  Yolana excused herself as she heard the raised voices from the adjoining state bedroom. The Governor and Katherine nodded, before Katherine asked, “Is there a restroom in there?”

  “Of course,” said Yolana. “Come with me!”

  Katherine joined her sister and walked into the state bedroom and found Sean surrounded and Surkov covering him with a gun.

  “Don’t panic Katherine,” said Sean, as Katherine entered the bizarre scene, “I’ll get us out of this, somehow.”

  Katherine laughed and began talking to the others in Russian, a language she had pretended earlier she didn’t speak. Sean was beginning to think he was losing his mind.

  When Yolana seemingly introduced Katherine to the Governor, it took on an even more bizarre twist as they kissed on each cheek and looked at each other as though they had never met before and began conversing rapidly in Russian.

  “Will somebody tell me what the fuck is going on here?” said Sean cutting across all of the Russians talking.

  Dr Surkov held up his hand to silence everybody.

  “You are a very lucky man, Sean Fox. You are witnessing the take over of the world’s two super powers!”

  “Sorry?”

  “We don’t have time for this,” said Katherine.

  Surkov gave her a look that silenced her instantly.

  “Each of you in here is only alive thanks to me. All of you, with the exception of Katherine, were delivered at birth by me. Sean is one of you, just as the Governor in there is one of you!” he pointed towards the other room.

  “Seriously, I have no idea what the fuck you are talking about,” said Sean.

  “I met the visionary Dr Mengele in Auschwitz where he had done groundbreaking work into twins, in particular, identical twins.”

  There were so many things fucked up about that statement that Sean didn’t even know where to start.

  “We were years ahead of everyone, decades in fact, we were experimenting with invitro fertilization thirty years before the first public test tube baby was announced. You in this room are all test tube babies born before Louise Brown, allegedly the first. That was our work, Dr Mengele and I. The plan was simple and brilliant. We believed that the likelihood of a powerful or famous person bearing a future president far exceeded the likelihood of ordinary people. We had proven that we could produce identical twins at will. So we set up clinics to help certain people have children. A very select few, very select. Your father was a military genius, Alexey’s father was a hero of the country and the first man in space, Rick’s father was a billionaire politician. There was a chance that any of you could have stepped up to become president. There are more, it’s not just you, hundreds but we never knew who would make it and who wouldn’t, so we had to cast the net wide to catch the big fish. Once in position, we replace the twin with our twin, our beliefs, our doctrines, our grand plan becomes a reality. Alexey and Rick have spent their lives following every detail of their twin’s lives. They are the perfect mimics, there is nothing they do differently.”

  “Jesus, you did kill the Governor’s wife!” said Sean. “She’s the one person that would have known!”

  Surkov nodded. “She would have known. By the time we realized he was the best chance to become President, he had already met his wife. Katherine got as close as she could and became Chief of Staff but never got closer. A very honorable man, the Governor,” Surkov said, looking at the beautiful and captivating Katherine, “Of course, she will marry our Rick and will become the First Lady. Just as Yolana, who knew our Alexey from Grebnevo went on to marry the other Alexey. My two presidents and my two girls by their sides!”

  “Grebnevo?” asked Sean.

  “We don’t have time for this!” urged Katherine, keeping an eye on the clock.

  “We have all the time we want! We are in control now!” exclaimed Surkov. He had spent sixty years planning that day and was going to savor every moment.

  “Grebnevo was our home for the project, where your twin grew up. My Sean was a dreamer. He wasn’t blessed with your talents or brains but idolized you, wanted to be you so badly.” Surkov reminisced. “Grebnevo was where all the twins grew up. It was top secret and set up at the end of the war under the direct command of Joseph Stalin. Dr Mengele, the visionary, worked there with me until he died. He never went to South America. That was just a cover story to keep the Israeli’s from asking too many questions. They never understood the wonderful work Dr Mengele achieved.”

  Sean wanted to snap the old man’s spine, but held it down. He wanted to know more and it seemed the old guy wanted to talk.

  “And your Sean?” asked Sean.

  “Your twin brother! When your mother gave birth she received you and I received the other. We set up a clinic in Washington, London and Moscow and we were ultra exclusive and guaranteed success and the best pre-natal care in the world. Presidents, movie stars, anyone who was anyone flocked to our door but very few got in. We hospitalized all our mothers with three months to go and performed emergency caesarians due to complications that kept any prying eyes away. When they woke up, they had the bouncing baby they expected, they just had no idea they expected two. This was long before scans, so nobody ever knew and of course our people were on call 24/7, if a mother had a problem, they called us.”

  “But how did your Sean end up in Texas?” asked Sean, the longer he kept him talking the more time he had to work out how he could escape and save the Governor.

  “He escaped from Grebnevo but I thought he had died during the escape. When you turned up after having allegedly died three months earlier, I knew my Sean hadn’t died during the escape. There weren’t three of you!” he surmised.

  “So you wanted me dead.”

  “Not you, the other Sean! But I didn’t know which Sean you were, if that makes sense?”

  Sean nodded, bizarrely it did. “But why?”

  “Because he was a dreamer. As I said, he wanted to be you, not what we wanted him to be. He didn’t believe in what we were doing and knew our plan. He would have spotted it had commenced and could have stopped us. He was a risk to our objectives!”

  “So what now? The Soviet Union rises and becomes the only superpower while you let your Governor become President and run America into the ground? The American system won’t let it happen,” scoffed Sean.

  “You still don’t get it!” laughed Surkov, cocking the gun and aiming it at Sean’s chest.

  “Katherine, take this drink through to the Governor.” Surkov nodded towards a goblet that sat on the bedside table, a small vial lay next to it. “And say goodbye to Mr Fox, he’ll be leaving us now!”

  Just as Sean was about to make his move, the door crashed open.

  Ch
apter 80

  “Nobody move!” barked Borodin, crashing into the room with his pistol raised.

  Sean realized the gun was being pointed at the others and not him and more strangely, he was speaking English.

  “General Borodin, glad you could join us, I’ve just caught this spy!” said Surkov, pointing his gun at Sean.

  “I heard everything Surkov!” he replied. “I saw him coming in this door.” He pointed at Sean. “And I followed him. I’ve heard everything you’ve said from behind the door.”

  “So you get it?” asked Sean thoroughly confused. He’d have thought Borodin would have been with Surkov. After all, it was a Soviet plan.

  “I get it and I’m still struggling to believe they nearly did it.”

  “But they’re Russians, they’re on your side!” said Sean.

  “Ah,” said Borodin realizing why Sean was confused. “They weren’t speaking Russian, Mr Fox!” said Borodin, understanding why Sean hadn’t got it. “They were speaking German, they’re fucking Nazis!”

  Sean couldn’t believe how stupid he had been. He had just assumed they were speaking Russian. He hadn’t paid sufficient attention. His mind had been elsewhere. It had been a long time since he’d made that kind of schoolboy error. He really needed to start learning other languages. German, Russian and Spanish were top of the list. Arabic and its dialects were not much help outside the Arabian Peninsula.

  “Jesus!” exclaimed Sean as the full extent of the plan hit home.

  “They’ve been planning the Fourth Reich!” explained Borodin, furious at having been deceived by them. “They were going to build the Russian Army up to its previous power!” He didn’t mention it would have been with his unwitting help. “And I can only assume they’d have done the same in America!”

  “And the world would be in a far better state!” spat Surkov, the hatred contorting his face.

  “We would unite our powerful armies and crush everyone else!” added Alexey Gagarin, the impostor President of Russia.

  “The people would have stopped you!” countered Sean.

  “The people would do as they were told,” laughed Surkov. “The timing is perfect, just like Germany in the thirties after the great depression. Americans and Russians are desperate for work, desperate to rebuild their economies. We would give them work, we’d make them proud and strong!”

  The scariest part of what Surkov was saying was that Sean believed him. The people probably would have loved it. They just would have had no idea where they were being led until it was too late.

  “Sixty years in the planning and scuppered at the last breath. Must be so frustrating,” offered Sean, bating Surkov.

  Surkov flushed with anger but didn’t react.

  “God, Mengele must be looking down and wishing he had picked a better protégé!” added Sean.

  Surkov snapped and pulled the trigger but Sean was already moving and as Surkov fired his pistol, Sean was already taking Borodin down, having dived into his midriff. Surkov’s bullet had been aimed at Borodin but whizzed past Sean’s right ear, taking a small chunk on its way. Another scar to add to the list. As they landed in a heap, Sean grabbed Borodin’s pistol. He rolled and shot Surkov cleanly through the heart. More than the crazy old Nazi deserved.

  Katherine screamed, launched herself at the dead Surkov, grabbed his gun and rolled across the floor towards the drawing room door. Sean fired again.

  As she reached the door, it opened and took the bullet that Sean had intended to stop her in her tracks.

  As the bullet thudded into the heavy wooden door, a bewildered Governor appeared from behind it and entered the State bedroom. Katherine was up in a flash and using the Governor as a shield had the gun at his head.

  “What the fu…?” said the Governor as first Katherine grabbed him and then he saw his double, his identical twin, the brother he never knew he had.

  “Drop the gun, Fox!” barked Katherine, pushing the gun against the Governor’s head.

  Sean shook his head and continued to aim at her.

  “Rick, go and take Sean’s gun from him!” instructed Katherine.

  The Governor began to move, Katherine pulled him back. “Not you, the other Rick!” she said angrily.

  “Can somebody tell me what the fuck is going on?!” shouted the Governor. It was bad enough he had a double, never mind one with the same name.

  Sean swung his gun and aimed at Yolana. “One more move and she dies!” Although they were not twins, the likeness of the two women was undeniable. Sean had figured out they were sisters and it certainly explained the tear in Katherine’s eye when they had met.

  “Stop!”” said Alexey, grabbing Rick the impostor. Alexey had just got Yolana back. He wasn’t losing her again.

  Sean’s aim remained centered on Yolana’s beautiful face. “They were going to kill you and replace you with your Nazi twin!” explained Sean to the thoroughly confused Governor.

  “Katherine?” asked the Governor of his captor and Chief of Staff.

  “What we must fight for is to safeguard…” Yolana, Alexey and Rick all joined her word for word. “…the existence and reproduction of our race and our people, the sustenance of our children and the purity of our blood, the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may mature for the fulfillment of the mission…”

  “Stop!” shouted Borodin, interrupting their rant. “They’re quoting from Hitler’s 'Mein Kampf’,” he explained to Sean and the Governor as the four continued to recite the passage by heart.

  The Governor’s face suddenly reddened as the penny dropped. “Jesus, did they kill Nicole?” he shouted, suddenly realizing what the swap would have meant. There was no way they would have fooled Nicole.

  Sean nodded and looked at Katherine.

  Before Katherine had a chance to strengthen her grip, the Governor lost control and went for his captor. Katherine instinctively pulled the trigger.

  Sean had anticipated the Governor’s move and had already begun to swing his aim towards Katherine. As Sean had moved the gun from Yolana, Alexey had sprung towards Sean. Sean ignored the body diving towards him and pulled the trigger as he watched Katherine pull hers.

  Sean caught a glimpse of Borodin’s hand slashing next to him as his bullet barreled towards Katherine. Her trigger finger hadn’t quite hit the required weight on the trigger as Sean’s bullet struck. Her gun took the full force of Sean’s bullet and exploded in her hand. The Governor would not be hearing anything from his right ear anytime soon, but at least he was alive.

  Rick was next to join the fray and dived towards Borodin who, as Sean turned to deal with Katherine, had saved Sean and sent Alexey, the impostor President off to Nazi hell with his ceremonial sword. Borodin moved like a man half his size. He side stepped Rick and with a Zoroesque flick of the wrist, ensured that Rick the impostor would never be mistaken for the Governor. The deep curved slash across his cheek would scar him for life.

  Yolana was caught like a rabbit in the headlights. Her sister screamed in agony to her right as her hand had taken the full brunt of the exploding pistol, while her one true love, Alexey, died at the end of Borodin’s sword, to her left.

  The Governor staggered away from Katherine and slumped into a chair as he remained dazed from the explosion so close to his head.

  “Nobody fucking move!” screamed Sean, as he swung the gun around the room. Nobody did.

  Where is the real President?” Borodin asked Yolana, looking at the dead impostor at his feet.

  A shake of her head was enough to confirm his fate. They had already killed him and removed any evidence of his existence. Borodin took all his strength and re-sheathed his sword. He didn’t trust himself not to kill the bitch there and then.

  The Governor looked around the room and shook his head in disbelief. “Jesus! Nazis, really?!” he asked rubbing at his ear.

  “Really!’ confirmed Sean.

  “So what now?” asked Borodin. He had a dead Russian President
to explain.

  Sean looked at the Governor for guidance but he sat catatonically rubbing at his ear. He was still in shock and in no position to help.

  Sean looked across at the dead impostor President. “You can’t prove he’s not your president. His DNA, fingerprints, they’re all identical. Trust me, I know only too well!” explained Sean.

  “We have him to prove it,” Borodin pointed at the Governor’s twin.

  “And tell the world they nearly succeeded?! Jesus it’ll cause havoc!”

  Sean paused and thought for a moment. He had an idea but he really didn’t like it. He shared it with Borodin.

  “Do you have anyone you can trust with this secret?” whispered Sean.

  “Yes,” replied Borodin confidently. He had Vasiliy.

  “Excellent, get Vasiliy here with a car or even better, a van. We need to get these three out of here and to Siberia or wherever you can ensure they remain out of sight and contact. You’ll need some footage of the grieving widow but just enough to prove she survived the attack.”

  “You don’t really want to send us to Siberia,” said Yolana, giving Sean her best come to bed eyes.

  “Shut up bitch, it’s taking all my will power not to shoot you, don’t make it any harder!”

  Borodin entered with Vasiliy and without question, Vasiliy began to tie up the prisoners. Pillowcases became hoods for the three and before long, Vasiliy and three of Borodin’s most trusted men were transporting the three to, Sean imagined, a cold and desolate place.

  “I am going to take the Governor and board our plane. If you could delay raising the alarm for a half hour that would be great!’ said Sean.

  “Thank you,” Borodin said, shaking Sean’s hand.

  “No, thank you and good luck!”

  Sean took the Governor by the arm and helped him to his feet. His balance was still affected but they walked slowly from the building to their waiting car.