I do not own Covert Affairs.

Here's the fourth chapter – I couldn't stop writing after that last chapter. Please Review


Joan mustered up her strength and reigned in all of her emotions as she walked into the interrogation room. She, like everyone else in her department had been waiting for this day for a long time, and now it was finally upon them. Feeling the watchful eyes of the C.I.A. operatives on the other side of the one way glass on her as she walked through the door, she wished for nothing more than to be alone with this man and be able to interrogate him in her own way. "Mr Vivaldi, I can honestly say it's with my great displeasure to have you sitting in that chair with a pulse."

Ishkoff chuckled, "Well, what can I say. I sometimes have that effect on people. However it's wonderful to meet the wife of the famous Arthur Campbell," He looked straight at her as she kept utterly calm, "Yes, I know exactly who you are."

Joan sat on the chair opposite of him and pulled it in close to the table, linking her fingers together on top of the table, "It's good to know we can skip painful introductions then."

It had dawned on her in that moment that this was a man who was well connected in order to know exactly who she was. Someone they had once underestimated as someone who could piece together information to find out the identities of C.I.A. operatives. Someone who had been able to find out who Joan's best operative was, and targeted her.

"That doesn't mean we need to cut out the pleasantries," His Russian accent laced thickly on each of his words. "From what I know of your reputation, you were quite excellent at protecting your operatives. Or so I thought."

"And from what I heard, so were you. By the way how are Sergei, Mishka, Doshcka and Augustus these days?"

He closed his eyes briefly with a small smile creasing his lips, "Touché Campbell."

"Mr Vivaldi, I'm going to make this perfectly clear. I'm going to ask you a series of questions that you are going to answer truthfully. If you do not, let me tell you that a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Siberia is a walk in the park compared to what we can do." Joan kept herself calm and steady as she spoke, making sure her words didn't reflect her boiling rage within her.

Vivaldi let out a breathy laugh, "Your threats mean nothing, Joan. I have connections everywhere."

"From where I'm sitting Ishkoff, your connections aren't much of a help to you as long as you're in our hands."

He leaned back into his chair and rested his cuffed hands in his lap "I don't expect to be in your hands for much longer."

"No I don't expect you will. I don't expect you'll have much of a pulse either." The fact that his lip quirked in a sharp manner indicated to Joan that he knew, just as much as she did, that it was no empty threat.

"You do not have the authority. My crimes aren't enough for death penalty."

"On the contrary Mr Vivaldi, your crimes can be linked to many of the recent terrorist attacks towards the United States in the last eight years. There is a hefty list of reasons that go against you living out the remainder of your life in prison, and point to the death sentence."

Joan saw as his eyes hardened but his expression remained in check, causing her to smile.

"A lot of people have been looking for you for a while, Ishkoff. Depending on how well you cooperate determines your fate."

Something pieced together in his mind as he slowly smiled, "But what remains a fact is that, what I know, is important to you. My information is the only thing keeping me safe at the moment. So no, I will not answer any of your questions." He leaned forward on the table, keeping eye contact with Joan, "I will not answer any questions until I speak to the one who's hunted down my associates. The one who's tried hunting down me."

Joan narrowed her eyes as his lips stretched revealing a gold filling in one of his back teeth.

"I believe you know her quite well, Agent Campbell." Despite her stone cold expression on her face, Ishkoff knew he'd spiked her interest, "She holds some quite extraordinary talents let me assure you; talents that allow her to escape death. The one you call Белый тень."

"English, Mr Vivaldi."

"Annie Walker."


Joan marched straight past Josephine's desk, despite her protests about Arthur being in a meeting with higher ups. Pushing open the doors, Arthur looked up from his desk as the other four suits followed his directions.

"Excuse me gentlemen, but I have an urgent matter to discuss with Arthur."

Arthur acknowledged the flames in her eyes a moment before he nodded towards the gentlemen in front of him.

Joan kept her eyes trained on her husbands' as the men exited the office around her. Waiting for the door to close, she spoke in a calm but vicious manner. "How long have you known."

"I-

"Don't you dare say I don't know what you mean. How long have you known she was alive?" Her voice remained at a conversational volume, but the anger and betrayal laced each of her words.

Arthur looked at her steadily, "I've known since she killed Sergei Alekseev three two months ago."

"You lied to me."

"To keep you safe." Arthur looked directly at her.

"To keep me safe? From what, Arthur? Finding out my operative was still alive?" She was visibly fuming at the moment.

"If anyone else had gotten word out about this, they would've believed that you were responsible for her actions. Your position at the agency would have been compromised."

"Is Annie another member of your black ops? Did you turn her into Ben Mercer?" How could he have done this to her? How could he have turned her best operative out into the cold, doing his dirty work as a rogue?

"No," Arthur's expression was intent as he spoke the word clearly. "I had nothing to do with her actions, but I couldn't let anyone in this agency be held accountable for what she was responsible for."

A faint metallic taste glistened on the back of her tongue at what he'd kept from her. She began slowly walking towards his desk, "You let me believe that Walker had been killed all this time. We do not keep things from each other, Arthur. As I said before, I am your wife who works for the C.I.A., not the other way around... you should have trusted me with this."

"I'm sorry." He looked straight into her eyes meaning every word, with every ounce of sincerity he had.

"I don't know if that will cut it this time, Arthur." Joan walked a few steps backwards and then marched out of his office, closing the door behind her.


It had been four days of futile searching through video footage from airports, train stations, ferry docks and other street cameras that Stu had looked through. Even though he found it impossible to believe Auggie's claims of Annie Walker being alive, he followed his boss's orders without questions. He knew better than to go up against him especially in this last year. When Stu heard through the line that Jai had Ishkoff, he'd hastily thrown his headphones off and headed out of the van only to see Auggie pulling himself up off the ground. When he'd called out Annie's name, Stu turned to see footsteps disappear around the nearest corner and out into the night. He hadn't had a good look, but he paid no mind as he hurried to his boss's side.

There seemed to be simmering fury in the pools of his eyes as Auggie searched night and day through the networks for Annie. Stu didn't have the courage or the heart to tell him that he was wasting his time. However, in respect to his boss, Stu looked thoroughly through each of the videos in search of the deceased operative. There had been copious amounts of rumours circling around the assumption that Anderson had finally fallen off the deep end. The murmurs of Walker being White Shadow had all been quickly dismissed by the rest of the operatives working on the Ishkoff case.

It wasn't until the following Monday that Joan walked hesitantly into the tech department and straight to Auggie's office. The distinguishable stilettos that she wore were the first thing to clue Auggie in on the presence of his boss before she slid his office door closed with a soft click. He pulled his head away from the close proximity of the brail pad on the key board and looked in her direction.

"What is it Joan?"

Her heels clicked across the office floor as she came to stand in front of his desk. "I have something difficult to tell you... something that may or may not come as a shock to you."

He leant back into his chair, bracing himself for what she was about to say.

"You were right. White Shadow is who you said it was... Annie is alive."


Insert Dramatic music here.

Thought I'd leave you with a predictable cliff hanger – lol.

Hope you liked it. I hope I still have my original readers still here

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Next Chapter up soon.