1-Silky Words and Sneaky Hands
"Get your hand off of my ass, Salem." Alice Murray snarled, forcibly shoving Elliot's left hand off of her butt. "You are having far too much fun with this op."
Salem sipped a bit of the pricey champagne from the equally expensive fluted crystal glass and chuckled. The mission runner was right, he was having too much fun, and while on the one hand he was truly enjoying it, on the other it terrified him. Fun too often crashed into disaster, and that was the last thing that they needed.
He herded her into a spot free of the milling banquet guests and faced her. Salem liked talking to Murray. The svelte woman was his height and it pleased him not to have to look up to make eye contact with her. He smiled broadly and the mischievous twinkle in his hazel eyes elicited a pert smile from the older woman. The man's continual antics drove her crazy, but seeing his boundless mirth erased most of the annoyance she'd suffered over the last three hours while pretending to be his fiancée.
"It's so difficult though, snookum. This silky, tiny pencil dress it just clings to your every nook and cranny."
"Nook and cranny! Nook and…Just stop it, Elliot, and do not call me snookum."
"Who picked teal? Let me guess…" he purred reaching out and running his right index finger down from the tiny bowl between her collar bones, down her heaving sternum pausing on each petite bump, and across the thin bit teal silk before dipping into the small oval of exposed skin in between her pert breasts. He paused, cocked his head to the left, hooked the exploratory digit beneath the soft material restraining her left breast and smiled again. "Well, I guess it must have been you."
"Remove your finger from my breast, Salem."
"But, we are so in love."
"If you love your finger, Salem, you will…"
"Well, well, well, I finally have you two in my grasp. Good evening, Mr. Oier Barrett and to his most extraordinary fiancé Calista Desmond. Welcome to my home. I hope that you are enjoying yourselves."
Salem smiled and grabbed three new glasses of Champagne from a passing server and handed them round. Once the trio settled he offered up the toast, prepared in advance, to inform their host that they had accepted his offer.
"We are having a lovely time, General Kovachev. Callie and I thank you for your gracious invitation, and we hope that we can all meet like this again sometime very, very soon."
The group tapped their glasses together and Kovachev smiled. The old general blinked his pale gray eyes looking away from Alice and aimed his gaze at Salem before nodding.
"Then, my friends, it seems that we have some business to attend to before we can truly settle in and enjoy the party. Come follow me please.
The pair followed the General through the throng of guests, across the huge banquet hall and into the far left wing of the palatial estate, finally arriving at the entrance to another wing. Kovachev paused while the two huge security guards unlocked the heavy Mahogany double doors and then ushered the group in. Once inside they encountered another long foyer. This one though was institutional in design. The cold bare concrete walls sported pale pea green paint and security cameras lined both sides of the passage at intervals of twelve feet.
Salem discretely pushed a micro sized button hidden in the knot of his bow tie and then turned looking back the way they'd come. The team, out in the headquarters van, now had full video feed of the duo's activities. Prior to the little camera's activation they'd only had audio. The carefully cloaked device would pass even the most advanced security check, but Salem was still cautious.
As he walked, Salem memorized the many turns and counted the doors and security personal that they passed. If they had to run, he wanted the lay out firmly etched in his memory. Finally, Kovachev stopped outside of a bunker style door and smiled.
"Well here we are. Shall we finalize our little arrangement and return for some dancing?"
"Suits me, lead the way."
The door swung inward and Salem and Murray both stifled a gasp. The control room was every bit as sophisticated as SSC's.
"Sweet set up, General."
"Thank you and please call me Alex. Come, the computer is just over here and we can get down to business."
At the terminal Murray took a deep breath, this was where, if she erred, the entire op, and nearly a year of planning would go south. Once Kovachev's man opened the program, she would feed him a string of code from memory that Kovachev believed was the key to cracking a JSOC data base's encryption program. The code was several lines long and if she missed even one data point the program would crash and their cover might be blown. Once implemented, the code would give the appearance of deciphering the secured data, but that time might be short at best if the General's man began checking its validity.
Salem, typically a very patient man, wanted out of the underground bunker and prodded the General.
"So, how are we going to play this, you give up the funds first or the code first?"
"Uri?"
"This screen is their account. This is ours, and this is the code. Half to them and they can watch and verify, then code, then other half and they can verify with their cell."
"Fair, Mr. Oier Barrett?"
"Sweetheart?" He asked deferring to Murray.
"Bring it up."
For a moment she studied the screens and then took out her cell phone.
"Will I get a signal down here, General?"
"Yes. We have an outside encrypted line."
They waited while she brought up the account on the device, verified its authenticity and then nodded.
"Begin."
Uri typed in the required information and Salem watched the funds transferring from Kovachev's account into theirs. Then, Murray moved in closer over the technician's shoulder and began reciting the memorized code. Fifteen long minutes later, Uri hit a key. The three screens hanging on the wall in front of the console flickered alive and data began streaming across them. He studied it for a time and then, looked up at Kovachev.
"We're in."
"Good, very well done, Ms. Desmond. Uri pay the couple."
The duo watched the rest of the funds transfer and Alice double checked it on her hand held device.
"Well hon, we in the clear. Now, if you gentlemen don't mind I need a stiff drink. That was quite a bit of memorization."
Back upstairs in the banquet hall, Kovachev led them to the bar and they ordered drinks. Then, he asked Murray to join him for a dance. She graciously accepted and Salem stood off the side to watch. Half way through the song Rios' voice chimed in his ear piece.
"We're green with Big Daddy start making your way out. Be quick. They detect some activity with the code. Kovachev's man is playing with it."
"Copy that."
He slugged down the remainder of his Vodka on ice and made his way toward the dancing couple. Once there, he politely cut in, before the next song started.
"May I have this dance?"
Kovachev bowed politely, stepped away and Salem took Murray in his arms.
"Are you nuts! You can't dance. Get your hand off of my…"
"Big Daddy is green and Uri got curios. We need to go. Just dance us toward the exit."