| "Double Jeopardy" | ||
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8th April 2008 23.00hrs Dinner with Eric had been interesting, he told her the board were still considering her proposal, as yet theydidn't see the need for putting their side in the argument with the environmentalists, but Eric promised to keep her informed as to progress. In return she had told him of her unsuccessful fictitious interview, making him laugh as she described the sour faced old prune of an editor who had a nasal twang, not to mention a nervous tic. He had picked her up from the Hotel Marat where she had a room booked, (The SIA owned the hotel, and it was staffed by SIA personnel), her car was parked in the garage below. The staff had wished her a good evening, and Eric was impressed, "Most people don't even get spoken to, " she smiled, "Secret of my success, be a big tipper." He sniggered at the innuendo, but she just continued to look at him coolly. Dinner was intimate, if not for the wire connecting her to Gray who was listening, and she knew that Eric fancied his chances. She was keeping him at arms length, and after her tears about her looks earlier in the day, she knew it would be enough to stop him trying anything. She treated him like her big brother, someone to give her advice, but not someone she would sleep with. He eventually got the hint, and although he wasn't happy, he wasn't completely giving up either. He suggested going to a club, but she declined, saying she had another interview in the morning and needed to prepare. He took it gracefully, and drove her back to the hotel, she kissed him on the cheek, saying "Thank you Eric, it was fun." She went indoors before he could ask her for another date. Gray was waiting in the office for her, "How was it?" she shook her head, "He doesn't give much away, and he is too keen on getting into bed to make it easy." Gray asked if she was prepared to have sex with him, he didn't blush and neither did she, "I don't think it would make any difference. If I don't get the job writing this article, then bedding him won't give me any more information than we already have." He nodded, watching her carefully, as he deliberated her words. "Ok, let's leave it there, for the moment." "Anything else you need me to do?" she asked, thinking of a hot tub, just waiting in her apartment for her to get in, and she was to be disappointed. He pulled out a file, "I received these communications from one of our Liaison Officers, Sean Strathspey." She felt the ice, film over her body, and shivered. "He has been trying to get hold of you, but you have seemingly blocked his account." She looked at Gray, "Yes, that's right. I did. What of it?" her challenge was as stark as her words had been. Gray looked cold, so much like Michael that she stepped back a pace, "Your role is to assist in communications, including deal with ALL the Liaison Officers. You will re-establish the link to MI9 from your account immediately." She nodded, without enthusiasm, she might have to receive Sean's communications, but she that didn't mean she would have to respond to him. "Anything else?" she asked, the bitterness in her voice evident. Gray handed her a folder with air tickets to Moscow and then onto Munich, "Ilya Georgiev is having difficulties with the software, I want you to resolve them, and a new Liaison Officer for BStV, Gerhard Weber, needs his laptop setting up. You fly out tomorrow night, I anticipate it will take no more than 4 days." She nodded, feeling weary at the thought of more flying, more solitary travelling, where she would rather have had action. "What about Eric?" she asked. Gray hesitated for a moment "one of the other agents will pose as Charlie, and will be seen around the hotel, and surrounding areas, however, Rebecca and I believe that this approach to Eric is probably not going to deliver very much and other agents are also established within the case perimeter. If you get the offer to do the article, we will accept on your behalf and apologise as you are currently unavailable to start, until 22nd April." He had obviously thought the plan through, she had no choice, but to go along with his orders. Wednesday 9th April 2008 08.30hrs She went to the labs, as cover, but as the day wore on into the afternoon, she spoke of having a headache and shivers. Hazel diagnosed a bad cold, and suggested she went home early. Saf agreed, and as her parting shot, Hazel, said "Why don't you take tomorrow off as well, if you come in, you will only pass it around the rest of us" Saf nodded and grabbed her coat, croaking "I'll work from home then.." she left to sympathetic waves from the rest of the lab staff and made her way home. 14.00hrs Outside in the car park, she called Paige, "I'm off on my travels again, it looks like a no go with Eric according to Gray." She responded with questions "Where are you going this time?" and when Saf mentioned Moscow, Paige giggled, "Alexei?" Saf shook her head, "I shouldn't think so. If you want to use the hot-tub, I'll drop you off a key." Paige was silent for a moment, before she replied, "You would trust me with your place?" Saf hadn't thought about it, her place. Yes but also owned by SIA. "No, but I trust you with my hot-tub" she responded. "See you when I get back. Good luck with Samboy." She hung up and drove to her house via SH2, where she collected a new laptop and cards, she would build the basics at home, making the install in Munich faster. At home, she packed a bag, and worked on the laptop, the faster she did the install the quicker she could get back. The flight was at 10.30pm and she had to be at the airport by 9.00pm at the latest. She finished the basics at 8.00pm and pushed the laptop into her hand luggage, throwing in a book to read on the plane. The drive to the airport was full of traffic after an accident on the freeway, which held her up. She made check-in with minutes to spare and was ushered straight through to departures. The flight was boring and she was too keyed up to rest, she tried to read but was unable to concentrate, the lights were turned down low and rather than strain her eyes, she put the book away. The peace she found through her meditation was elusive with the constant noise from the other passengers, and she gave up and watched the in-flight movie instead. 01.00hrs Local Moscow Time The plane landed late, customs were slow and outside the air was freezing. She hailed a taxi and gave directions to drop her near Ilya Georgiev's location, she hoped he didn't mind waking up for her, and she wasn't to be disappointed. Ilya was a bear of a man, 6ft 5" tall, his dark hair and brows full and bushy. He had waited up for her to arrive, and greeted her with an invitation to share a glass of vodka. She couldn't refuse him politely and before she knew it, she was soundly drunk, and full of sorrow. Ilya laughed, "It is right for a Russian, to be sad when drunk. It is when we are at are best, comrade." 10th April 2008 11.50hrs She didn't feel quite the same way in the following morning, when she threw up in the toilet, cursing her inability to drink copious amounts of the fiery liquid. Ilya offered her breakfast, but when she saw his, three fried eggs covered in bacon fat, she was reduced to retching into the kitchen sink. He ate his breakfast with relish, while she showered and freshened up, feeding her pressing headache with painkillers. 17.00hrs The task of repairing the system didn't take too long, Ilya had tried to install a new program which had drivers incompatible with her system. Once she had established the problem, she was able to fix it fairly easily, and gave Ilya a disk with a program she put together there and then, to run if the same problem occurred in the future. Ilya offered to show her the sights of Moscow town, but she had already decided to revisit the Club Rossya, if she had time, and the next flight to Munich was not until tomorrow morning, or that was what she had told Gray, who seemed disinterested at her report. Ilya gave her a set of keys to his apartment, "if you need a bed tonight, you can have my couch, unless you get lucky?" She smiled, despite his professional demeanour, he was a challenging personality, and she liked him. He picked up his coat and left her to change, saying he would see her later. 21.00hrs She had packed the blue dress in her hand luggage, it travelled well, and with a shake the creases fell out. She applied minimal makeup and picked up her purse, and coat. The taxi dropped her outside the club, and she hesitated for a moment, wondering if as a lone female she would be allowed in, but she was waived through with a crowd of people. She checked her coat, and moved upstairs, to the room she had been taken to by Alexei. It was as she remembered it, soft lighting, dark alcoves and she took a seat at the bar to watch the dancers on the floor. They were playing a soft jazz melody, she couldn't put a name to it though, she drank her wine and enjoyed watching the people passing by. A couple of men, tried to chat her up, but she was cool and calm with them, before sending them away. She thought she saw Alexei, but when she took a closer look, she could see he was similar, but not quite as tall. 23.55hrs She wasn't drunk, not wanting to make that mistake she had kept to white wine with soda and had sipped it slowly. If Alexei was around, she wanted to be sober. She slipped off the bar stool and visited the toilets, to freshen up, when she had finished and was checking her make-up, she noticed a tall leggy blonde, with blue eyes, in a black dress cut so low at the back you could see the crease of her buttocks. She had caught Saf's eye when she was trying to apply eyeliner, not successfully, "Ach these men, they don't appreciate a girl for trying to look her best." Saf had smiled, an automatic action on her part, and tried to appear interested, but excused herself to return to the bar. She had no sooner taken her seat, when she saw Alexei appear escorting the lady she had met in the bathroom, leading her across the floor to the darkened alcoves. The pain she felt was sharp, and although she managed to stay sitting on the seat, she wanted to run as far as she could. She had meant nothing to him, nothing at all. The room stopped, the music faded into one single low toned note. Her focus was on him; a flashback of that night. Was the leggy blonde to take her place in his bed? The reality took over in as the people moved again, the music picked up tempo, and she realized she had been just a one night stand. How could she have acted so cheap? How could she have been so stupid? She debated staying put and facing him out, and then decided wisely, that she would leave before he saw her. She walked slowly downstairs, collected her coat and left. It was too cold to walk, but she didn't fancy going back to Ilya's place, despite his friendliness, she needed to be alone for a while. She walked along the silent, empty roads, not feeling the cold; she didn't feel angry, she was too annoyed with herself to feel anger at anyone except her. She had known it was a one night stand, she was the one who had told herself she would never see him again, and first chance she had had, she had gone back to find him. 03.00hrs Ilya's apartment It was silent and empty, Ilya was still out. She washed and changed into vest and pants, and curled up on the couch. The loud ticking of the clock on the wall was an unwanted noise and intrusion into her world, she debated tying it down, but in the end stuffed a cushion over her head and tried to sleep. 11th April 2008 18.00hrs Munich � BStV Gerhard Weber was a cocky little git, a little too sure of himself and fancied his chances with the ladies. She had disliked him on first sight and now she was finding it difficult to work with him. When she had taken his iris print, he had moved, despite her best efforts to capture a good scan. In the end, she had to resort to using a tall chair, and putting tape around his forehead to keep him still, before she could get a scan that would work with the system. His only comment had been a guttural "Ja, so you think you can build a system that is so clever, but you need old technology to input scans." She had bitten her lip, drawing blood, fighting to retain control over her temper, she could feel the anger burning in her veins at his stupidity and chauvinism. The day had started badly, and now was getting progressively worse. She had made the flight by the skin of her teeth and paid for it by being seated between a large German salesman and an equally fat Italian, who spent the entire 3 hour flight discussing the process of manufacturing leather. She had tried pleading with them to change seats, but the Italian refused saying he needed the space in the aisle to stretch his legs, and the German insisted on keeping his window seat. Cursing under her breath, she had taken her book and her disc player out and putting in headphones, turned up the sound to drown out their irritating voices. The music did nothing to calm her own temper, but she was able to listen to it clearly. On arrival at Munich she had taken a taxi to the address she had been given, 18 FeldHakken Strasse, only to find it was a derelict building, clearly occupied by squatters. The taxi driver didn't want to leave her there, but she had said she was waiting for some friends, and watched as he drove away slowly before she climbed through the barricaded doorway. It smelt of stale urine, and unwashed bodies. A recumbent body, lay dormant in one room, covered by a filthy sleeping bag torn and ripped. By the smell of him, he was well overdue for a visit from vermin control. The other rooms were empty, and so she retraced her steps back to the room where the vagrant lay. She kicked him, stepping back said "Wo est Herr Weber?", no answer and she continued "I have an appointment with him regarding a watch." The body emerged from it's cocoon, despite outward appearances of being a bum, his voice was that of officialdom. "Bitter. Follow me, Ja?" she held her temper under firm control, but her thoughts pondered what the fuck this charade was about? Curtly she replied "Meine name ist Katrin. Ich bin eine tecnik consultant aber C-Moore associatesa. I want to see Herr Weber now," she chilled her voice to below zero and to his credit he apologised. 30 minutes later and she had been introduced to Gerhard, and if she had to finish the installation by working all night she would do it, she didn't want to be near him any longer than she had to. She had been polite and professional, he was rude, obnoxious, and when he thought she wasn't looking he was leering at her. She had to force herself to move close to him, to put the glasses on to get the iris print, and even that close to him, she could feel her skin crawling. 01.30hrs She stretched, unkinking her muscles, the installation was nearly complete and soon she would be able to go. A few final details ensured that the system was functioning and she started to pack her bags ready to go. She made one mistake, and that was to turn her back on Gerhard, who decided to chance his luck and he placed his hand on her bottom, giving it a squeeze. She didn't think, she just reacted. She evaded his hands and brought both her hands down on either side of his neck, hard. The nerves paralysed by the blow, left him defenceless, and she brought her knee up, hard into his groin, followed by a kick to his throat. But he was down by then, and she pulled the latter, standing coldly watching him curled up, holding his groin and moaning in a high-pitched whine. As she stood coldly watching him, a wet stain appeared on the front of his trousers, and the stench of faeces from him told her she had scared him to death, but he deserved it. She didn't feel anything, the red rage of anger had gone, to be replaced by an iciness that seemed to hold her prisioner. Slowly, she was able to function, and left him where he lay. This she wasn't going to be able to hide, there was no chance of keeping it quiet, but she had no intention of leaving her fate to chance. She rang Gray, "I have a problem," she said calmly, he paused and then she heard clicks which told her he was recording their conversation, "Please, continue," his voice was quiet, and intent. She explained the situation, the fires of rage still burned, but she had them under control. When she had finished, Gray simply asked "How bad is it?", she looked down at the now still Gerhard, he was still breathing, but he was in shock. "I don't think it's irretrievable.." Gray interrupted, "Get your stuff, and leave. I will smooth things over the best I can, but I want you back in NY asap." She was left holding a phone, he had disconnected. What she wanted to do was scream, but she managed to collect her bag and coat, and picking up the laptop that should have been issued to Gerhard, she left the room. She had debated on calling Paige, but she knew what her reaction would have been and she couldn't deal with that right now. She got an early flight out of Munich, to New York, it left at 3.30am in the morning and would land in JFK at 5.00am local time. The flight was empty, and she managed to find a corner where she would be undisturbed, she re-ran events in her mind, which led up to her attacking Gerhard. Finally exhausted, she slept, despite the leaden weight on her chest. 12th April 2008 Manhatten 06.30hrs She stood opposite the Baha Bar, waiting for the courage, which had failed her, to come back. She tried to convince herself that she was ready for this, but inside she had no idea of what was going to happen to her, the best she could hope for, was to be able to give her side of the story. Return |
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