Chapter 26: The Pakistani Consulate Affair
Lucas tried to control his emotions about Nyssa. He did not want to reveal anything to Elizabeta about his personal involvement with Nyssa. If the Russians were after Nyssa, the less Elizabeta knew about her, the better.
"You said that a secret group is in contact with the FSB. Who are they?" he asked fearing that he knew what the answer would be.
"I don't know. The men they spoke to were American. They said that a trap has been set for this woman. She will be theirs by this afternoon. If their plan fails, the FSB wants you to bring her to them."
Suddenly, Lucas remembered the operation at the Pakistani consulate. The plan was for Nyssa to go into the consulate and copy the Pakistani computer files on her own. Was that the trap that Elizabeta was talking about? Was the discovery of the memory stick that Marlin had in his pocket a ruse?
Lucas handed the files back to Elizabeta and pulled his mobile out of his pocket. He turned back to Elizabeta with grave concern all over his face.
"Go back to the FSB and tell them that MI-5 is looking into a Russian operation that she took part in years ago. I don't know anything more than that."
"Lucas….," she called out as he turned to head back toward his car.
"I have to go, Elizabeta. Please, don't ask any questions. It's better if you don't know," he said holding up his hand to stop her.
Without waiting for a response, Lucas nearly ran to his car, leaving Elizabeta very confused. He dialed Harry's number while his other hand fumbled for the keys in his pocket.
"This is Harry Pearce... Leave a message," said the recorded voice on the other line.
Lucas hung up the phone in frustration. He pulled the keys from his pocket and unlocked his car. There was no time. It was nearly noon, and the operation had already begun.
Fear and guilt shot through Lucas the more he thought about it. He was the one who found that memory stick that set the whole plan into motion. He had to get back to the grid and stop the mission before it was too late.
While Lucas raced back to Thames House, the team was gathered at their various stations to monitor Nyssa's progress from the grid. They watched as Nyssa walked casually toward the High Commission of Pakistan.
She wore a cream-colored blouse with a tan fitted business jacket and skirt that was just above her knees. Thanks to Lucy, she also wore a pair of cream colored high heels that matched the blouse. She carried a UK Times newspaper and a steno-pad. Nyssa wore a pair of dark rimmed glasses with her hair pulled loosely back at the temples. She looked very different than normal, very business oriented.
Nyssa had one addition to her wardrobe that was especially unique. Malcolm had installed a micro-camera in the bridge of her glasses, so that the team could watch the entire operation in live feed. He also gave Nyssa one of their ear comm receivers and audio bug, so she could communicate and receive Malcolm's instructions as well.
"Okay, Malcolm, I'm walking into the consulate now. Are you with me?" she asked.
"Yes," replied Malcolm from his station on the grid. "The signal from the camera in your glasses is still strong. We can see everything that you're seeing eight now."
Both Ros and Harry were gathered around Malcolm's station watching as the operation unfolded. Malcolm gave Nyssa the glasses and the comm link as a precaution in case she needed anything from him. Outside of that, she was on her own.
Harry had ordered the surveillance team and his own crew to stand down no matter what happened inside that building. This was suppose to be a purely deniable operation. MI-5 could not be a part of any of it, not even to rescue Nyssa and Jack if things were to go horribly wrong.
Jack had already been in the consulate for nearly an hour. When she entered the building, she saw that he was still in the queue line with three other people in front of him waiting their turn. He was also dressed in a business casual wear with a manila folder that contained nearly 50 pages of documents cradled under his arm. He was constantly rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, checking his watch every five minutes. He glanced around the room, looking like a desperate man with very little patience.
Jack caught Nyssa out of the corner of his eye but tried to ignore her. Both he and Nyssa coordinated the time to carry out this mission at the busiest time of the day, 12.00 noon.
Consulates were a great way to do business while overseas. Immigrants working abroad could pay their taxes or renew their visas at their foreign consulates. Nyssa knew that most of the people in the room chose to do their business while on their lunch breaks which was why it was so busy. It was the perfect distraction that she needed to try and gain access to one of the offices in the back.
That was where Jack came in. He was the distraction. Nyssa pushed her way through the queue crowd, making sure that Jack saw her in order to point her out to the rest of the frustrated individuals tired of waiting in the lines. Jack mumbled and complained, under his breath at first, then became more vocal with each passing minute.
Nyssa ignored him and made her way to the front reception desk making sure that the receptionist knew how equally frustrated she was.
"Julia Carter from the UK Times," she said in her proper British accent. "My editor was suppose to ring you about my appointment?"
"I am sorry, but I have no Julia Carter on the appointment list," said the young girl speaking perfect English but with a slight Kurdish accent.
"Of course, leave it to the men to bollocks everything," she said presumably to herself.
Harry cleared his throat at that comment, while Malcolm frowned at his monitor. Ros remained neutral while Jo smiled to herself as she monitored Nyssa's progress from another terminal. Connie monitored the radio frequencies for any alerts if the operation were to go South.
Nyssa turned back to the receptionist and continued with her cover story.
"I'm writing a story on foreign trade in Pakistan, and I need visas for myself and my editor. I need them right away, so call your superior right now to help me."
Nyssa knew that low-level consulate employees were terrified of angry journalists. She was sure that they would bend over backwards to accommidate her every whim. Her cover would help her gain access rather quickly.
While Nyssa waited for the receptionist to return, Jack was getting extremely vocal about his own frustration at the system. Nyssa glanced over at Jack who, by now, was throwing his arms up in the air waving his papers around yelling about who he had to sleep with to get service. A slight smile played across her lips but quickly went away when a consulate official with salt and pepper hair emerged from another doorway with the receptionist following behind him.
"Miss Carter?" said the official as he smiled and extended his hand to Nyssa. "I am so sorry for the wait. Please, come with me."
The official led Nyssa through the door into a hallway of various offices. Nyssa could still hear Jack's voice through the closed door as he turned very obnoxious and annoying.
"You must be dealing with that quite often these days," she said to the official referring to Jack's little tirade.
"Oh, that is nothing," the official said leading Nyssa through the maze of hallways.
"I heard that it is getting harder for businesses to deal with Pakistan," Nyssa said casually just to ruffle his feathers.
The official's demeanor turned a bit sour but still maintained his smile as he motioned for Nyssa to take a seat in a smaller waiting room while he took care of his own business. Nyssa complied and watched as the official walked toward a closed office door across the room and knocked. A slightly younger man opened the door and stepped out into the hallway to talk to the official. Both men spoke Arabic in hushed tones before they turned and headed for the main lobby.
There was no doubt that the other man was the head of security leaving to take care of the commotion that Jack was causing in the lobby. The first part of Nyssa's plan had worked. Now, she had to get into that room without being seen.
Luckily, she did not see any security cameras in the area where she was. She did a quick double-take just to be sure. If she were seen going into that office now, she would be caught before she even got to the computer.
Nyssa casually entered the office and quietly closed the door behind her. The office had three solid walls with only a single window looking out toward the city. No one would be able to see her, which was very convenient for what she was about to do.
"Okay, Malcolm," she whispered into her comm-link. "I'm in the office. What's next?"
"Turn on the computer and insert the memory stick into the USB port once the hard drive is ready. You will have two minutes before security discovers the connection and traces the source."
The computer laptop was on a desk angled in a corner at the far side of the room. The desk faced the doorway, so Nyssa could work and stay attentive to any sound of people in the hallway.
Nyssa waited until the computer displayed the login window before she plugged in the memory stick into the USB port. She watched as the program connected from the computer to Malcolm's terminal at the grid. Malcolm immediately began a password decoder to unlock the files.
The cursor suddenly came to life and within seconds, the password was inserted and the computer was unlocked. It did not take Malcolm very long to find the proper files and start copying them to his own terminal.
Everything was going as planned, yet Nyssa still felt uneasy. It felt a little too easy to sneak into this office.
A faint sound of people at the end of the hallway pulled Nyssa's attention away from the computer. The commotion was getting louder. Nyssa froze for a moment to listen. When the voices tripled in number, she quickly ran to the door to have a look.
She opened the door a crack to see the office workers exiting their offices while four security guards searched through each room. The head of security along with a suited individual stood in the hallway coordinating the search with a third party on their radios.
"Malcolm, something's wrong. Security is already in the hallway checking offices. You said I had two minutes before they'd find the hack," she said through her comm-link.
"Connie said that security had already been alerted. Someone must have told them. Nyssa, I'm so sorry," said Malcolm with heavy regret in his voice. "I'm afraid you're trapped."