Pseudo (3 page)

CHAPTER FIVE

Elizabeth landed in Mexico City late afternoon. On arrival the rest of her team met her. First stop before getting to her hotel was a salon where she dyed her hair black - a color that she not only hadn’t had for ten years, a color she never had before. Once she got back in the black Escalade, she put on the brown contact lenses Mr. Madison had given her. “Well, Tommy, do you recognize me now?” Duarte asked one of the men on her team.

“Well, I’m not sure we picked up the right person from the salon! Do you have an ID?” replied Tommy.

“You’re funny. But, as a matter of fact my name is Sophia Hayward of Britain!” replied Elizabeth in jest.

During the ride from the salon to her hotel in the center of Mexico City, Elizabeth was running through scenarios again and again. “How is it that I am going to find these criminals? Intelligence and observation. But the police are all corrupt and bought out by them or other criminals. Can’t trust them. Going to have to make this our own operation,” thought Elizabeth.

Arriving to the hotel she checked in as Sophia Hayward. The backup team checked into their rooms down the hall from her suite.

Just as Elizabeth was getting settled in her room she got a message from Mr. Madison on her phone: “Duarte, remember, you are the agent for this op and you will be effective.” Seeing this made her smile - as stern and seemingly inhumane as Mr. Madison may appear, he always instilled confidence in her and other agents that they would accomplish their mission.

Seeing this message reminded her she needed to have a planning meeting with all her guys on the ground. She sent a message to her backup: “Tommy, can you please round up the team and have everyone meet in my suite in thirty minutes?”

Tommy responded right away, “Sure thing boss.”

CHAPTER SIX

“Look, Juan, you need to be willing to take her out if you need to. She is the one person that could destroy our entire deal here. The reason she is the one person that could do that is she is your wife and if you falter on taking her out if she gets onto anything, then that’s it. I need…”

“That’s it, Dmitry! Stop it! Stop going on and on about this! I have told you Elizabeth has not and will not catch onto things. If she somehow does, I will get rid of her!” exclaimed Juan in response to Dmitry’s grilling. They were on a private jet en route to Mexico City from Moscow.

Dmitry had still not met nor seen a picture of Elizabeth, which assisted the lack of compassion for her as a human being. “Juan, Juan, Juan - I am a respectable businessman, a banker, traveling to Mexico on business. I happen to have a large amount of funds which belong to me that are going to be transferred from the Mexican National Bank to my private bank in Russia. Everything should go as planned if you do your part and nothing goes wrong,” Dmitry said in a cool manner.

“Okay, look, I will do what I have to do. I have always taken care of what I have had to take care of. You do not have to be concerned about that and it is insulting to have you grill me like this after everything I’ve accomplished for us,” Juan responded.

“I don’t know, Max, what do you think about all of this?” said Dmitry, turning to Max who was deep into his computer.

Max was the IT guy. As part of their operation, he had learned computer programming - both Mac and PC systems and if he had an honest job he would be making nearly as much as he was making as a criminal. “Well, the conversation you are engaging in right now is between you two. I cannot give a judgment towards either side as it would not be fair. I think that we have a fucking job to get done and we need to do it. If that is understood by all of us and that you are the leader and we do what you say, then we should be all good,” replied Max looking back and forth at Dmitry and Juan.

“Okay, good. Then we just need to get to work when we arrive there and everything will be fine. Just Juan, remember why I am not married. I never settled down and women are dispensable. If I found a woman with the intelligence of a man who could actually work by my side - not just my lover but my business partner who would defend me and I her no matter what, I might consider it. Unfortunately, the government and so on already hires most women of that caliber. So, I have had many women and will continue that way - no ties to anyone. You really should consider it Juan,” Dmitry said with a smile on his face.

“Dmitry thanks but no thanks. Believe me I had my share of women in Colombia. Are you kidding? Every woman around me wanted to be ‘the one’ - but I never got ‘the one’ as I realized they were only after my money. They were never there for me when the chips were down or when something threatened their life. They never realized that being with me and all the money came with a price that was the threat to life. That was part of what led me to get out of the drug cartel scene - never having security,” said Juan reflecting on his years in Colombia. “Thought I was on top of the world but then I realized that any criminality only goes so far. Once you’ve gotten what you wanted, it is the right thing to pass it on to someone else and move on with your riches.” Juan continually failed to realize his life with Elizabeth was only an illusion of that perfect marriage he had always wanted. It could never be real in view of his dishonesty about both his past and present.

“Well, Juan, I see your views. Unfortunately, I don’t share them and this you know. I want control and power so that no one can use their control or power on me. Look at me now; men in the Middle East with more ammunition and power of destruction than I practically bow down to me. Why? Because I control energy in a way they aren’t able to. I don’t plan on ending my process - I am in pursuit of full power and control and I will get it and continue to amass it,” said Dmitry as he gazed out the window of the plane.

“I can only admire your determination, my friend,” replied Juan, patting him on the shoulder as he stood up to go to the bathroom.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“Alright guys we’ve got our work cut out for us on this operation,” said Elizabeth as she had her whole back up team sitting around her suite and cracking their knuckles. “We are it. We cannot rely on the local government to do anything. They are corrupt in general and also may be specifically corrupted by El Diablo. In a severe case, we may get back up from the CIA branch office at the US Consulate Office here. But even then it is in extreme urgency. We are here, we do our job, and we get out. No media coverage, no local government noise, etc. Real stealth job. Is this clear to everyone?”

Everyone replied with agreement.

“I have one question though - what if we have to do a whole shoot out or such without making a bunch of noise or attention?” asked agent Forrester.

“Well, you raise a good question Forrester. What do we do?” replied Elizabeth, addressing the team.

“Well, I think that if we have to make a lot of noise it should only be out of extreme urgency and then we have to involve the US Consul with a cover story for the media” replied SJ who was the intelligence operations officer of the team.

“Right, that is exactly what we do. See, all these little points of the team have to be in. Fast action with lots of communication and coordination.”

“The first thing we are going to have to do, which is your area SJ, is get the information on all incoming flights, commercial and private starting now through tomorrow. Presumably these people are traveling privately and will not all be registered as they would be if they traveled commercially,” said Elizabeth.

“I have a set up with the private jet manager at the airport. I will get all the names of everyone that has stepped foot off every private aircraft that touches down,” replied SJ.

“Good, good. Then we will have the names by sunrise. When we have them we will move from there. Everyone get some shuteye - well, SJ, I guess you’ll get what rest you can as I need you on this,” Elizabeth said with a concerned look on her face.

“Ok, it’s all good Duarte - I’ll work my sleep around things and we’ll have those names,” said SJ who was a man of good work ethic.

Elizabeth’s team had a very high regard of her. She had a reputation in the agency, which preceded her. Her reputation was that of efficiency, professionalism and dedication. They did not know much regarding her personal life.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Just around midnight, Dmitry’s plane touched down at the airport. Stepping off the plane Dmitry said: “Ah, the pollution of this lovely city,” as he took a deep breath in sarcasm.

“Yeah, it certainly isn’t fresh like Bogota! I told you Dmitry, we’ve got to get some business there!” exclaimed Juan.

“You’re funny! Don’t you remember you’re like a celebrity there? Not exactly good for our low profile operation,” replied Dmitry.

“You all don’t know what you’re talking about. Germany is the most beautiful place in the world! End of dispute!” said Max.

“I have other views on Germany, but we won’t go there,” replied Dmitry as they proceeded towards the airport terminal.

“We need to get to work on things. I am staying in the Grand Hyatt downtown. You guys will stay in the Marriott Suites just on the outside of the central business district,” Dmitry said as they got into their black luxury SUV.

“Why do you always get the five star suites?” replied Juan rhetorically.

“Max, you have all the programs set to go, right?” asked Dmitry as he poured himself a glass of vodka from the mini bar in the SUV.

“Yes, all is set. Juan does his part with the Judicial Police and the private security control and we are in,” replied Max very matter-of-fact.

“I will be setting up a security command station to override the internal computer security systems and the operational security response systems of the bank. This will work on queue with Max’s program which brings down the ‘gate’ to the National Bank of Mexico and brings the funds up into the US Federal Reserve Bank and out of there to a ‘black hole’ with gates closed behind it and from there to your bank,” replied Juan looking at Max with spite for not providing more details.

“Good, Juan, I’m glad you’re kept informed of all of the technical details,” said Dmitry as he downed his vodka. “Now, my job is to be here as the businessman. I will show up in the bank tomorrow morning and inquire about my account. Spend a couple days around town ‘enjoying myself’ while we get our plan done,” Dmitry said with complete confidence that their plan was brilliant and would work.

They soon arrived at the Marriott Suites where Dmitry dropped off Juan and Max who then proceeded to check into their rooms. Moving on to downtown Mexico City, Dmitry arrived at the Grand Hyatt and checked in. His suite was one floor beneath Elizabeth’s. A coincidence they would both find advantageous.

Dmitry settled into his suite which had a beautiful view of the city, king size bed, large bathroom, dining room and kitchen facilities and of course a bar supplied with his staple drink: vodka. “Wow, this hotel really knows how to serve a Russian businessman!” Dmitry thought. He unpacked his suitcase and turned on the TV to BBC.  He made it a point to keep abreast of international news so he would be able to move around different world events. “Same old shit, different day,” he thought. After unpacking Dmitry went to sleep, planning to be up by 10am to get to the bank by 11:30am and then to lunch.

CHAPTER NINE

By 7:30am Elizabeth was up, dressed and ready for her day. She had a message on her phone from SJ: “Call me when you’re ready - I have the data.”

She replied adding Tommy on it: “Good. Get everyone together. Meet in my suite in fifteen.”  As she pressed, “send” she felt the sense of excitement that she was about to get into action.

Within fifteen minutes, everyone showed up in her suite.

SJ started off with his data. “Okay, there was a flight that arrived around midnight last night. In fact it was the last private flight to arrive yesterday - flew in from Moscow via Amsterdam and Miami. Registered passengers were an Oleg Sokurev, Alex Kresnikin and Anna Minerova. They were on board and in fact are the flight crew. The passengers were really Dmitry Sidorov, Max Liebermann and uh…” SJ was stalling as he did not want to sound incompetent.

“Go on, who‘s the third?”

“Well, the third was unnamed - only listed as third passenger,” replied SJ.

“It makes no sense. Did you get any visuals of them?”

“Unfortunately no, I did not. The airport security does not allow visuals of the private jets as it is usually celebrities and they don’t want that going around everywhere.

“What the fuck? And you didn’t set it up? We are the CIA, SJ!” exclaimed Elizabeth.

“Now, I do have good news too. This Dmitry man is staying in this hotel and he is in a suite one floor beneath us!” said SJ.

“Shit son! How is that good for us?” replied Tommy.

“Ugh! Security guys always have to think of perimeters. Duarte, do I need to explain the tactic this allows us or will you do the honors?” said SJ.

“Well, let’s see…” said Elizabeth as she turned to look out the window, followed by a moment of silence. Elizabeth had worked with everyone on this team so they all knew she was a mastermind at plans and when she was thinking, they needed to just let her be in order to come up with the plan. “Okay, guys, this is where it comes in handy that I am a woman,” said Elizabeth in a moment of enlightenment.

“Oh boy! Let’s hear it - you have that ‘I have a wild idea in mind’ look that you get when you have a wild idea!” said SJ.

“Yeah, girl, you got that ‘I’m all over this shit’ look goin’ on over there!” exclaimed Forrester in agreement with SJ.

“You guys are too much!” Elizabeth said in laughter. “Okay, here is my idea: Dmitry clearly portrays himself as a wealthy businessman. He is here to do whatever criminal activities he has in mind, but no man with a lot of money stays in a suite in the Grand Hyatt unless he’s also planning to have a little bit of fun with some lady friends. I am unknown to him but we’re in the same hotel. I will get close to him - okay, I’ll put it straight, no sugar coating - I will get in bed with him, not actually having sex with the guy but get in his bed and so in his head. Get microphones in the room and any other data I can get and this will lead us right where we need to be,” Elizabeth said with satisfaction at what she considered a brilliant idea.

“Well, Duarte, I have a concern about this plan; he’s a guy, probably strong since he probably has to defend himself and when a guy wants it, he usually will get it. How do we make sure that he doesn’t abuse you or something?” said Tommy with the concerned attitude of a well-trained agent and good friend.

“Well, Tommy, you bring up a good point. I can’t confirm that won’t happen. The only thing I can say is that I have played that card successfully before and nothing bad happened. I got the guy where we needed him and nothing happened to me. Sure, I had to kiss the guy, which wasn’t fun. But, when it is for the greater good, I put up with it. Worst case scenario is that, in order to not blow my cover, I have to go all the way with him and I do so protected. I don’t know what to say. I will do what I have to do to get the job done. He’s a criminal and I will do what I have to do to protect my country.  Sex can be used as an intelligence tool and has been so used for centuries,” replied Elizabeth.

“Okay, Duarte, I trust you. But believe me, we are going to have your back. Like…hmmm…for example, we are going to check into a room that is on the opposite side of the bed room so that if anything gets out of hand, knock with a code on the wall and we are going to get right in there and get you out. That is the only way I will agree to let you do that kind of move. We clear?” said Tommy.

“Tommy, you’re like my older brother or something, but yes we are clear,” replied Elizabeth patting him on the shoulder.

“Alright then, let’s get to work!” exclaimed Elizabeth.

“Maybe this is a dumb question, but what do we get to work on?” asked Forrester.

“Man! Get set up, SJ finds out what the guy is doing. Follow up, get on his tracks, get the room next to his or on both sides for that matter, get me set up with a small microphone to place in the room, etc. Come on guys! Let’s go!” said Elizabeth clapping her hands.

“Now, let’s see, how am I going to make myself so irresistible that this Dmitry chooses me over all the other women around this place?” Elizabeth thought as she stood looking herself in the mirror.