CHAPTER 78

Odessa, Ukraine

October

UPON THEIR ARRIVAL IN Ukraine, Reece and Freddy were met by a case officer assigned to the embassy in Kiev, who was not happy to have made the six-hour drive to retrieve some bearded commando types from the Odessa airport. Steve Douglass was polite but not overly friendly as he greeted them outside the terminal. The men stowed their backpacks in the back of the small black Lada four-by-four SUV and climbed inside.

“So, I’m assuming that you guys are here for the president’s visit? ”

“Something like that, ” Reece responded.

“I guess the Secret Service needed some extra bodies? Not sure why they couldn’t pick you up. ”

“We aren’t super close with the FSO, ” Freddy added.

“What do you mean, the FSO? I’m talking about the Secret Service. ”

“The United States Secret Service? ” Reece asked.

“Of course. POTUS is here. ”

“The president of the United States is here, in Odessa? ”

“He will be in a couple of hours. You’re telling me that’s not why you’re here? ”

• • •

Freddy immediately called Rodriguez on the sat phone and gave him the rundown. The interagency wheels, however inefficient, began to turn in Washington as the Agency made contact with the Secret Service. Much like presidents’ recent visits to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, this visit was being kept a secret until the last moment. The White House pool reporters would not even be aware of their destination until Air Force One landed in Odessa, and as can be the case in a bureaucracy as big as the United States intelligence and federal law enforcement apparatus, the right hand often did not know what the left hand was doing.

In the meantime, Steve Douglass made a phone call and determined which hotel the advance team was using as a base of operations. By the time the local agents were informed that a pair of CIA officers were on the ground with specific threat intel, Douglass was parking outside their temporary command center in Hotel Otrada.

As the trio entered the hotel lobby, a petite female agent with a lapel pin on her blue pantsuit approached them. Freddy fished his green agency identification badge out of the inside pocket of his jacket. All Reece had was his black U. S. passport, which he handed over. She scrutinized both, returning Freddy’s badge before handing over Reece’s passport.

“You look just like a guy I saw on a wanted poster, Mr. Donovan, ” the agent said, staring at Reece with bright, unflinching eyes.

“I get that a lot. ”

She slowly broke into a smile and shook their hands. “I’m Kim Scheer. Follow me. ”

It looked as though the Secret Service had occupied the entire hotel; uniformed and plainclothes agents were moving around the lobby as they readied for the arrival of their principal, the president of the United States. Agent Scheer led the way to a suite on the hotel’s highest floor. The room was packed with tables filled with computers and communications gear as well as at least fifteen agents and technicians. A tall man in his early fifties stood in the center of the room, clearly in charge. He wore a dark blue three-button business suit and his head was closely shaved, having given up the battle with his receding hairline a decade earlier. He turned to greet Reece and Strain like a man with a great deal on his plate.

“What can I do for you two gentlemen? ”

His accent was from Minnesota or perhaps the eastern Dakotas.

“We’re from the Agency, Ground Branch. I’m Freddy Strain, and this is James Donovan. We have reason to believe that there is a specific threat against the president of Russia and/or the president of the United States here in Odessa. ”

They had his undivided attention.

“What kind of threat? ”

“A sniper. A sniper team, to be precise. A Georgian national they call the Shishani and a Syrian named Nizar Kattan. Last known location was across the Black Sea in Turkey. The president needs to cancel whatever public appearance he has planned. ”

“How credible is this? ”

“It’s credible, ” Freddy responded.

“I hate to break it to you guys, but a lot of people want to kill the president and we can’t shut down his schedule every time some nutcase makes a threat. I’m going to need specifics, gentlemen. ”

“Look, we have a Syrian general brokering mercenaries at the behest of a former GRU colonel named Vasili Andrenov set on a transfer of power in Russia who’s put a sniper team within a stone’s throw of Odessa at the same time the presidents of Russia and the United States just happen to be here. One or both of them are the targets. ” Reece was starting to lose his temper.

The man put up a hand. “I’m sorry, guys, I didn’t mean it that way. I’m up to my eyeballs here and now I’ve got two scraggly-looking Agency guys telling me about some plot to kill the president. Let’s start over. I’m Lee Christiansen. ”

The taller man shook both their hands and his demeanor changed appreciably.

“Lee, the president needs to cancel this speech or move it inside, ” Freddy said.

“If it were up to me, we’d never let him leave the White House, but that’s not how a republic functions. We can’t cancel his itinerary every time there’s a threat. ”

“This isn’t some whacko posting threats on Twitter from his mom’s basement. This is a trained sniper team, ” Freddy stressed.

Christiansen sighed. “Here’s what I’ll do. I’m going to pair you guys up with one of my agents so you’ll have full access to our resources. Agent Scheer, you’re going to be our point person on this. Whatever these guys need, you make sure they get it and call me directly if someone gets in your way. I’ll talk with the White House and fill them in. Will that work for a first step? ”

“That works for us, ” Freddy answered.

Agent Scheer led them down the hallway into a smaller room that had been set up with a conference table. A whiteboard stood in the corner on a tripod stand. All three took seats with Scheer at the head of the rectangular table.

“So, what do we have, guys? ”

Reece spoke up first. “We’re going to tell you some things that you’re probably not cleared for, so hopefully your memory isn’t the greatest. ”

“I drink a lot. ”

“Perfect. Here’s what we know: a former Russian intelligence officer, with a history of planning coups and assassinations, is living in Switzerland. He is on the outs with the current Russian administration led by President Zubarev and would love to have his hard-liners in power. Through an intermediary, he contracts with a Syrian general to hire a sniper team whose last known location was in rural Turkey near the Georgian and Armenian borders. ”

Freddy passed his iPad to Scheer and pointed to the spot.

“Looks like a good place to train, ” she observed.

“Our thoughts exactly. ”

“May I? ” Scheer asked rhetorically as she zoomed out of the image so that the entire region was visible. “I don’t like it that they’re so close to the Black Sea, and the presidents are going to speak on the coastline near a major port. ”

“Where’s the speech? ”

“Here. ” Scheer scrolled the map to center on Odessa and zoomed in on a site near the coastline. “It’s called the Boffo Colonnade. It’s located on the grounds of the Vorontsov Palace. It’s a tourist attraction and major landmark. ”

The curved narrow structure was lined with ten massive columns on each side and sat like a raised amphitheater in front of a cobblestone pedestrian area that led to a wide set of stone steps, framed on either side by elevated statues of full-maned African lions.

“What’s the sniper risk at the site? ” Freddy asked.

“We evaluated it as moderate. To the front there are buildings that block the line of sight to the lectern and we have them secured and covered with our own countersniper teams. It’s all low ground behind the colonnade all the way to the sea. There are some structures on the port with exposure, but we’ll have everything there secure out to two thousand meters. The entire harbor will be shut down during the speech and we’ll have eyes out that direction. ”

“Is that the president’s only public appearance in Odessa? ”

“Other than the airport tarmac and the route to the speech, that’s it. ”

“Tell us about the route. ”

“Nothing ideal for a sniper, especially not in the Beast, ” Scheer said, referring to the president’s heavily armored Cadillac limousine.

“Anything else peculiar about this site? ”

“Yes, there are catacombs underneath used during World War Two, but they existed well before that. The partisans used them to fight the Nazis. The plaza was a restaurant in the 1800s. The owner would supposedly drag drunk customers down into the tunnel system, bring them straight down to the docks, and sell them to the slave ships waiting in the harbor. ”

“Really? Rough way to wake up. I’m assuming you’ve secured the tunnels? ” Freddy asked.

“Correct, but they have three levels and they’ve never been fully mapped. We’ve secured all known entry points, but people are discovering new ones all the time. There’s an entire industry built around exploring them, discovering new passages, new artifacts. ”

“Terrific. ” Freddy checked his phone and saw an email from Andy Danreb.

“Looks like the analyst team is up and running. Let’s see if they have anything for us. ” He dialed into a secure conference number and put his phone on the center of the table with the speakerphone engaged.

“Danreb here. ”

“Andy, it’s Freddy and James. We’re in Odessa with Agent Kim Scheer from the Secret Service. ”

“Agent Scheer, I’m Andy Danreb here at Langley with Nicole Phan and Fabian Brooks, our computer whiz. ”

“Appreciate you all pulling this together on short notice. Anything new? ” Reece inquired.

Nicole spoke up. “We are exploring anything and anyone with a connection to Vasili Andrenov, Jules Landry, and General Yedid. Andrenov’s political connections and charitable giving have muddied the waters since there are so many paper trails to follow, but we are working it through. It looks like Landry’s network was pretty slim. Yedid is connected to just about every radical Islamist refugee in the Middle East and southern Europe. ”

“In other words, we don’t have shit, ” Danreb chimed in.

“Keep on it, Andy, we have. . . how long, Kim? ” asked Reece.

“Three hours and thirty-two minutes until Umbrella lands. Four hours until he goes onstage. ”

Every protectee, or “principal, ” had a Secret Service code name: “Umbrella” was a reference to the 187th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, nicknamed by the Japanese as Rakkasans, which meant “falling-down umbrella men. ” The president had commanded the Rakkasans during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 before being selected as vice president by the previous administration.

“We have less than four hours, so do what you can. I know you’ll come up with something. Out here. ”

Freddy ended the call and turned to their Secret Service liaison. “Can you take us to the site? ”

“Let’s go. I’ll drive. And let me get you two some lapel pins. ”

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