The Red Herring

Chapter 9

Markov's hands gripped the table edge. "I don't have anything to tell you."

Beth glared at him. "How do you know Paulina Kirshov?"

"I knew Paulina a long time ago," he said.

"Who is the girl mentioned in that email?" asked Beth.

Markov sighed. "Paulina asked me to make sure she was safe. She said bad things were on the horizon."

"Who is the girl?" Beth repeated.

"Her daughter. She said they were coming for her."

Jim inhaled sharply. "Who is coming for her?"

"I don't know," he said.

Beth knew he was lying. She sat down in the chair across from him. "I want the rest of you to leave. Mr. Markov and I have some talking to do."

Markov's eyes widened at Beth's request. "Absolutely not," said John.

"I'll stay," Jim said.

"No," she said. "We need to have a private conversation."

The Three Musketeers, as Beth had once called them, knew it was no such thing as privacy in the building but John didn't want to leave her alone with Markov. "A minute?" he asked her.

He motioned for the door and reluctantly she followed him through it. "What?"

"You're not an agent anymore but you still have to play by the rules. If I let you interrogate him, you have to swear to me that you won't touch him. I'll be recording in the next room. But I mean it, Beth. You can't touch him."

Beth nodded. "I swear."

"Only because you're a good agent. Don't make me regret this, Lachlan. Send Jim and Tommy out," John said.

Beth entered the room and motioned for them to join John in the hall. Jim gave her a look and she smiled at him. Once they'd left, she gave John a few minutes to set up the recording.

"Look, you've been made," she told Markov. "We know you're a sleeper agent. We know most, if not all, of the agents in your group. But Paulina's daughter was abducted and I need to know who was behind it and why."

Markov hesitated. He looked at his hands. Beth tried another angle. "You're in serious trouble. If you tell me what I want to know, I'll help you. If you don't...."

Markov thought for a moment and sighed. "Our group splintered. I don't even know where half our members are now."

"Let's start with who you are in contact with."

"Just Paulina now. She wanted her daughter safe. I hadn't spoken to her in a long time. But she said her daughter's last known whereabouts were D.C. and asked me to reach out to her and also the sons of a CIA agent."

Beth studied his face. He was telling the truth. "Who are the sons and why?"

He shrugged. "One was the son of her friend. The other one is her daughter's husband. Look, we've been in this country for a very long time. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, some of us no longer cared about our mission. We just want to live out the rest of our lives in peace. But some of us... they're still in deep. That's why we split up."

"Who's still in?" Beth asked.

"Irina, Vladimir, and the American. Alex was too but he was killed. Katerina was but she's dead."

"Ok, what about those who aren't? Who defected?" Beth asked.

"Well, I did. Paulina too. Ivan left but no one has seen or heard from him in years."