The Red Herring

Chapter 30

The next morning, Beth followed Dmitry to the hotel. She had Katerina ride with her back to the compound and Alex Bazarov rode with Dmitry. "What's on today's agenda?" Katerina asked.
"We need to talk. I need to make certain I understand everything that happened back then so I can better understand what's happening now," Beth replied. They were stopped at a traffic light and Beth gave her a stare.
Katerina looked away. "Well, this should be fun," she said sarcastically.
When they arrived at the CIA compound, she put Katerina in an interrogation room and went to turn on the recording equipment. She saw Tommy walk in with Mitch and Peter Javan in tow. "Hi," she said. "What a surprise."
"Hello, again," Peter said. "I called Tommy because I wanted my boy safe. An agent has gone to get my other boy. I doubt she'd be brazen enough to come here."
"Let's hope not. Tommy, I need you for a moment."
Tommy asked an agent to take the men upstairs and walked down the hall with Beth. "What's up?"
"I've got Katerina Kovalev in there. You want to observe or be present?"
"Want to good cop/bad cop it?"
Beth shook her head. "She won't fall for that. I'll go in. If I scratch my head, come in."
"Roger that," Tommy said and slipped into the adjoining room.
Beth walked into the interrogation room and poured them each a glass of water before sitting down opposite Katerina. "Ok, let's start at the beginning. What year were you recruited?"
"I believe it was 1979. Maybe 1980."
"What year did you come here?"
"I believe it was 1983. We trained for several years."
Beth took a sip of her water. "What kind of training?"
"I'm sure it's similar to the training you had," Katerina said, bored.
"I didn't have training. They just threw me to the wolves. Guess I'm a better agent."
Katerina glared at Beth. "We learned English. We learned how to handle firearms. We learned how to blend in with Americans. We learned their customs, their mannerisms."
"And that was when you learned how to be the ghost?" Beth asked. She looked over her raised glass at Katerina.
"I've told you I'm not the ghost," Katerina said calmly.
"And that was when you learned to lie?" Beth scratched her head. Tommy entered the room. "Set up that thing we got last night and have Dmitry listen to it. And bring Walt in here."
When Tommy left, Beth saw the tiniest hint of panic in Katerina's eyes. Beth had to give it to her. She was good. "Curious yet?"
"About what? My son has nothing to do with this." Katerina leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest making her silk blouse bunch oddly in the front. Her blonde hair was pulled back from her face in a tight bun. It made her look older.
"Your son is very valuable to this investigation. He'll sell you out faster than you can blink. He's already mad as hell at you."
Katerina sighed. "I did the best I could. You should know what it's like to be an agent and a mother. You try to put your children first but you always put your country out in front."
Beth didn't answer. The two women just stared at each other for a few minutes until Tommy came in with Peter Javan. Beth had purposely referred to him by his alias as to not tip off Katerina. Beth watched as Katerina's mouth fell open but it wasn't because of Peter. From behind him, her father emerged.
"Hello, Katie," Beth's father spoke. Beth glared at him. She was saving him as a last resort.
"Stavros! How wonderful to see you!" Katerina started to stand but Beth ordered her to sit.
"Dad, good to see you. Get the hell out of here."
Her dad smirked but backed out of the room with a wave. Tommy gave her a nod. "Good news," Beth said. "Your son just confirmed it's your voice on a recording given to us by this man in which you state you are the ghost."
Katerina paled. "He did no such thing because I am not the ghost."
Beth smiled. "Lie all you want, sweetie. We'll do a voice analysis. It'll come back as you. I'm not sure we can identify you as the killer of all those men you killed in the 80s but we can definitely get you on being a spy."
Beth stood up and walked out of the room. She bumped right into John who was with another man. "I'm sorry," she said.
"Beth, meet your soon to be ex-father in law," John said.
"Oh my God. James Blackmon. Pleasure to meet you. Have you seen your son?"
James shook his head. "Somehow I doubt he wants to see me."
"Adam might not want to see you but your other son might."
James shook his head. "Adam no longer exists. I'm not especially proud to call Jim my son after all the things he did to you but I'd like to meet my grandchildren."
"Actually, I was talking about the son you had with the sleeper agent. The agent in the room behind me. Or as we're now calling her, the ghost."
The color ran from James' face. "Katerina is the ghost? I should have know. Wait. We had a son?"
"His name is Dmitry. Would you like to meet him?"
"He's here?" Beth nodded. "Yes, I'd like to meet him."
Beth walked down the hall to the other interrogation room. She opened the door to find Dmitry seated at the table with his head on his arms. "Hey, D?"
Dmitry raised his head. "Hey."
"As it turns out, your father isn't dead after all. He wants to meet you. Are you ok with that?"
"He's- yes, yes, I'd like that."
Beth motioned to James and he walked down the hall. Beth stepped from the doorway and allowed James to enter the room before closing the door behind her.
She grabbed John from the hallway and pulled him into the elevator. "What's up?" he asked.
"Not here." She pushed the panel away revealing the keyhole for the vault. John inserted his key and they descended. When they walked out of the elevator, Beth led him over to some chairs by one of the long tables. John sat down and Beth pulled her gun on him.
"What's up?" John asked without flinching.
"I've been this organization's bitch for most of my adult life. Now that I'm a reinstated agent, I have some questions and you're going to answer them."
John shrugged his shoulders. "I was gone for a lot of those years but ask."
"What is this I keep hearing about a classified Paris op?"
John sighed. "I knew they couldn't keep that a secret. Look, I was at Homeland when that went down so everything I know came to me after the fact.
"And what was that?"
"The Paris op was part of a bigger op that is still in play. The bigger op is called Blackbird. I can't discuss that op with you. I'm sorry. But I will tell you that all is not as it seems."
Beth sat down. This op was pissing her off. Wait a second. "This is about Ness, isn't it?"
"It might be."
"I saw him get shot, John."
"Yes. But Blackbird isn't really about O'Donnell. There are other players that are still active."
"Anyone I know?"
John sighed. "You know all of them but Beth, it's classified and you're not on that case."
"I'm not asking for details. I just want to know who was working the Paris op. I don't care about Blackbird."
"Beth... I'll give you one name. That's it."
"Two names and we never had this conversation."
"You're not going to like it," John said. "You have to be satisfied that you have two names."
"Yeah, fine. Who?"
"Dmitry is one."
"I know he's involved. Who else?"
"Mike."
"What do you mean?"
"What do you mean?"
Beth sighed. "Mike wasn't CIA back then. He wouldn't be involved in a CIA op. Well, other than what he did for me with Operation Hawk. Why the hell are all CIA ops named after birds?"
John chuckled. "Not all of them."
"So about Mike..."
John closed his eyes and mentally prepared himself for the bomb he was about to detonate. "Mike has always been CIA."
Beth was silent for so long John opened his eyes. "What did you just say?" she asked.
"Mike signed up before you did. He's been in this whole time."
"No," she began. "Navy and FBI. Then CIA."
"Sorry, kid. Those were covers."
John could see the gears turning in her mind. "Motherfucker," she said. "Paris."
"Yes, he was part of the Paris op," John said.
"No," she began as she organized her thoughts. "When I met Ness... I did that job for Interpol, right?"
John nodded. "After Hawk."
"I was in Paris at a coffee shop when I met Ness. He and I would meet there from time to time and once he brought Mike."
"And you already knew Mike."
"Yeah." Beth was running her finger over a groove in the table when her head snapped up and she looked John in the eyes. "Is Dmitry an agent?"
John shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "He might be."
"I'm going to kill them both."