Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of any of the characters from the R.E.D. or its sequel.
The offices of the Russian Ambassador in Washington. D.C. could never truly be considered quiet but the scene it currently presented was the furthest thing from it. At shortly after 7 pm, Moscow time, two men (originally thought to have been spies) had been captured trying to break into a secure records room in the Kremlin. Both men had been quickly and easily identified as Americans and the C.I.A. had just as quickly disavowed all knowledge of the two men and their alleged activities. That had not been an unexpected reaction on the agency's part in any case as something about the captured men's actions seemed strikingly unprofessional. It had raised the alarm bells for Russian Ambassador, Ivan Simanov, to the point where he was inclined to believe the C.I.A.
His office was a flurry of activity during what would have usually been their lunch hour. People were running in and out, delivering and retrieving reports, and carrying on rapid conversations in their native tongue in nearly every corner of the ambassador's normally spacious and grand office. The ambassador himself stepped back from his cluttered desk, having just replaced the phone's receiver in the cradle, and took in the organized chaos that surrounded him. As busy as the office appeared at that moment Ivan's previous experience in such matters told him the situation, as it was currently understood, would cool off come evening which would thankfully allow him to keep his dinner engagement with his fiancé, Victoria Winslow. As if she knew he was thinking of her Ivan felt his cell phone ring in his pants pocket. He pulled it out and a smile slid across his face as he saw her name light up the screen. Taking a furtive glance about the room Ivan ascertained that he would not be missed for a moment and he slipped through the sliding glass door onto his private balcony.
The noise of the street was a welcome change from the buzz of the animated conversation that was currently taking place in his office. He took a cleansing breath and answered her call, the very thought of her immediately relaxing him.
"Zaychik moy." He exhaled.
"Oh Ivan!" She seemed surprised that he had answered. "I had heard the news and thought you would have been far too busy to answer your phone."
"I am never too busy for you."
Victoria laughed. He could tell from the sound of her voice she had the phone cradled between her shoulder and cheek which meant she was in the kitchen either baking or cooking, either of which he would benefit from that evening.
"Well I had thought to leave you a message excusing you from our engagement this evening."
"Not necessary, my love." Ivan replied as he leaned on the balcony's concrete railing and looked out at the traffic below. "I do not think this will require me to work outside of regular business hours."
"That is good news."
Ivan could hear the smile in her voice and wished the day had already finished so he could hold her in his arms. His mind began to wander, as men's minds tend to do, but was brought back to the present by Victoria's voice.
"Whatever it is you're dreaming about will be waiting impatiently for you upon your arrival."
"Dorogaya moya, you know me better than I know myself." Ivan's deep voice rumbled with laughter.
A tap on the glass door behind him drew Ivan's attention back to the task at hand.
"Ah, lyubov moya, I must go. I will see you, all of you, this evening."
"You're incorrigible!" Victoria sighed. "Take care of yourself, Mr. Ambassador. I don't want to have to come looking for you."
Ivan smirked. "Don't tempt me."
They said their goodbyes and Ivan opened the door, the chatter had not diminished in his absence, and one of his aids passed him a memo the moment he crossed the threshold.
"Director Cooper will be able to meet with you at one-thirty." The young man said.
"That should work." Ivan said as he went to his desk and called his secretary. "Yes, Yana, please bring me an updated schedule for today. I will be meeting with Director Cooper at one-thirty for about an hour before I meet with Leonid at three."
"Yes Ambassador." The woman replied.
Yana, an attractive woman in her early thirties, hurriedly made the addition to the Ambassador's schedule and printed off a fresh copy before gathering the large stack of other requested items and headed towards his office with haste. As she sped down the hallway her phone buzzed in her hand and she stole a quick glance down to see who was calling. As a result she did not see the man with whom she collided and the papers, once stacked high in her arms, went flying in all directions. Yana looked up from the mess to see a handsome bike messenger with an extremely apologetic countenance.
"Oh, I am so sorry! Let me help you." He said as they both knelt down to retrieve the loose papers that lay scattered across the floor.
"It was my fault." Yana said, tucking a loose strand of her strawberry blond hair behind her ear. "I was looking at my phone to see who was calling." She paused as she did so again. Her phone had ceased ringing and she saw with frustration that the caller I.D. had been blocked. "Of course it was a wrong number. Typical."
The man laughed as he gather some papers, he held up his phone to show her. "I'm guilty too." He kept the phone in his hand as he neatly stacked the pile of paper together and handed them to Yana. "I am sorry."
"Me too." Yana replied. "And thank you." She called over her shoulder as she redoubled her pace and sped down the hall.
As he watched her disappear the man's face fell into a more serious repose. "No," he said in a voice low enough that no one else would hear him. "Thank you."
Yana swiftly and silently slipped through the crowded room to where Ivan was working at his desk, signing orders and directing various aids and other embassy officials.
"Here is your schedule, sir." She said as he finished with the last of the people who had been swarming about his desk.
"Wonderful, thank you Yana." Ivan smiled. "Can you please have a bouquet of flowers sent to-"
"Oh yes, sir" Yana interrupted, gently nodding towards the aid who had quietly approached.
Ivan looked over and waved the man off. "Give us a moment, Pietro."
The man nodded and turned away.
"Thank you, Yana. This is a bit of a mad house today."
"So you will still be able to make your evening meeting?" the woman asked with a raised eyebrow.
Ivan flashed a crooked grin, his eyes twinkling. "Yes. I do not think this will require late hours. It does not appear to present a threat to our relations with the Americans or our national security. Some ill prepared fools with too much time and money on their hands trying to usher back the cold war." Ivan rolled his eyes.
"Well, I am sure you're 'friend' will be pleased." Yana winked before leaving to deliver the remaining pile of papers to various people about the room.
Yana was one of two people at the embassy who knew of Ivan's relationship with Victoria. The other was Mikhail, his driver. He trusted both implicitly. Ivan sighed as he saw Pietro shuffling nervously back towards him and beckoned him over with one hand while massaging the bridge of his nose with the other.
Several blocks away the bike messenger who had run into Yana was turning out of a back alley and into the open door of an old car garage. The bay door closed slowly behind him as he leant his bike against the oil stained wall, carelessly tossed his helmet aside and ran a hand through his shoulder length brown hair. He set off in a jog down the short hall that led off of the back of the garage bay, bike shoes clicking on the concrete as he did, stopping only once he'd reached the open office door at the far end. The room had no windows and housed three desks laden with computer monitors and various other electronics. It was around one of said monitors that several men were currently congregated.
"Did you get the video?" The bike messenger asked as he approached the group.
"Yah. Great work Alan." The man sitting in front of the monitor congratulated.
Alan peered past the other men's heads and saw the video he had sent from the embassy on the screen. It was frozen on a shot of Ambassador Simanov's schedule for the day.
"This is perfect, Rick." A man with a shaved head and bearded face praised.
Rick, a man with wide shoulders, a broad nose and dark, closely shorn hair nodded. "Everything has fallen into place perfectly." Rick agreed. He swiveled in his chair to face the other four men. "We don't have a lot of time but we're ready. Steve and I have patched into the city's CCTV feed so we will be able to time this precisely. And it will have to be precise, we have next to no margin of error on this." He directed their attention to the monitors on the adjacent desk that were currently showing the feeds from the city's traffic cameras. "Alan will be here, at the base, Steve on the sidewalk here," he pointed near a bus stop on one of the monitors "Russell, in the truck here, and Jay and I will be waiting here with the bus." He clapped his hands together. "Alright boys, go make all the final preparations. We've only got couple hours and one shot at this."