Dreaming Through Regret
Chapter 13 - My One Condition
The sun setting grabbed Eyal's attention from where it had been focused on Annie, reminding him that there were still things he and Annie needed to discuss.
"Neshama, come, we should talk."
"Can't we just stay here? For a little while longer?"
"You know as well as I do, that is not an option. You have a target to track down don't you?" Eyal said with a small smile, as Annie groaned before agreeing.
Eyal unwrapped his arms from around Annie and stood from the bed, he slid on his black jeans before tossing Annie his t-shirt. Annie's eyes followed his movements across the room, soaking in the lithe form he cut as he padded barefoot to the desk. He looked over his shoulder with a smirk as he beckoned her over.
"Come on Annie, you can stare later."
His tease pulled her out of her trance and she sent him an embarrassed eye roll before pulling on his shirt and her panties. Eyal settled on the sofa across the room from the bed and placed the file he had on the table in front of him. Annie sat herself on the other end of the small couch and dropped her feet in Eyal's lap.
"Is this your file on Fischer?"
"Yes, it's more extensive than the file your CIA has on him, especially for the last few weeks." Eyal said before gesturing for her to read it.
The slow turning of pages was the only sound in the room for over an hour as Annie read through the very detailed file. Eyal could see the tension return in the furrowing of her brow and grip she had on the file. He waited patiently for the plethora of questions he expected Annie to have when she was finished. While he waited he gently massaged Annie's feet and calves, desirous of continued contact after so long apart from each other.
"Fuck." Annie cursed under her breath as she closed the file. "I never had him convinced did I? He played me like a violin."
"Annie, this man has been trained as a spy since he could walk. Paranoia is ingrained in his DNA. He would have done the exact same thing that he did to you to ANY American he came into contact with. He just got lucky that his paranoia was right this time. What I can't figure out is how his suspicion was confirmed."
"Based on what I see in the file, he did go from suspicious to convinced I was a spy pretty quickly. But I only made one contact with the OSP and it was via text." Annie replied to Eyal, though he could see the wheels turning in her head.
"It's the mole! It has to be!"
"The CIA has a mole?!" Eyal queried, startled at the info.
"Seems that way. Auggie figured it out while I was in Africa. He managed to find the rest of the files that Jai had."
Eyal whistled, "For a blind man Auggie is really good at finding stuff."
Annie chuckled a little at the statement. "Auggie is good at his job. They managed to narrow the list of suspected agents down to 3. Two of the names meant nothing to me, but the CIA is huge, the last name however was Lena Smith, she heads up the department I would have been transferred to if I hadn't gone to the OSP."
"Your gut is telling you something isn't it?" Eyal asked as he continued to work his thumb into the arch of Annie's foot.
"She makes the most sense honestly. I have zero proof it's her but she runs Ops in Eastern Europe and has assets in Russia. The other two are more focused on South America and Western Europe to be effective moles to Simon Fischer."
"Tell me what else you know about her."
"Not much I'm afraid. She's about my height with short brown hair. Auggie and Joan didn't actually tell me much about her, let alone let me read her file."
"Do you think Simon is here to meet his CIA contact?"
"That's what we are hoping for."
"So what's the plan?"
"I'm supposed to run into him. Auggie tracked the signal from the charger to a hotel on the other side of the city, luckily there is a real estate agency nearby."
"Damnit, knowing what we know now, can you honestly say that you think running into Fischer is a good play?"
"It's not a good play at all. It'll be virtually impossible to change course at this point without potentially exposing that I've received additional intel on Fischer. It could blow up in our faces."
"Let it blow up. I'd rather face the fallout that comes from our relationship coming to light than potentially throwing you in with Fischer at this point." Eyal forcefully replied.
"Alright, let me get Auggie on the phone." Annie said as she went to grab her phone from her bag.
It was closing in on 10am the day after Annie had departed for Estonia, and the phone on Auggie's desk started ringing.
"Annie Walker… Annie Walker." filled the room.
Auggie was surprised by the phone call. Annie had texted him earlier per the comm protocols they had established. Receiving a phone call from her deviated drastically from that protocol.
"Annie, are you okay?"
"I think I've been made. I think Fischer knows I'm CIA." Annie said softly on the other end of the line.
"Come again?" Auggie responded as he sat up in his desk chair.
"I was followed from the airport."
"Okay, that's definitely not ideal, but that doesn't inherently mean you've been made. We don't even know if it was Fischer who had you tailed." Auggie replied, concerned at what he was hearing but trying not to convey that to Annie.
"Who else would do that here, Auggie? Are there other ops running in the Baltics? Should I be concerned about getting in the middle of an active op?" Annie's voice took on an edge of disbelief as she questioned Auggie.
"Whoa, calm down Annie. Where is this coming from? You seemed settled before you left DC, but now you're seeing shadows everywhere." Auggie parried back, trying to get Annie refocused.
"Let me just run some reconnaissance on Fischer first, please? Don't send me in yet?" Annie bargained.
"Okay, Annie. Let's run this your way for now. Just know that if you lose Fischer here we may not find him again." Auggie acquiesced, hoping that Annie knew what she was doing.
"Thanks Augs."
Auggie terminated the call without replying. Something was off there, he wasn't sure what, but something had spooked Annie. He didn't deny that she was followed, Annie was too good of a spy to misinterpret someone following her. She would have used counter pursuit tactics to verify before she made that kind of statement. There was another piece in play though, she wouldn't have called in for just being followed, she'd learned something that set her instincts on fire. But what and how?
Joan walked into his office a few minutes later, though he didn't notice that until she spoke.
"Auggie? Everything okay?" Auggie jumped in his chair a little, it has been a while since someone had caught him off guard like that.
"Annie just called."
"Why? Did something happen in Tallinn?"
"Annie said she was followed from the airport, she assumed that it was Fischer."
"She can't know that." Joan stated, unknowingly backing Auggie's earlier statement to Annie.
"I told her that, but then she asked for info on any active CIA ops in the Baltic states, and questioned if she was accidentally getting in the way of something else."
"You don't believe her?"
"Oh, I believe her, but I don't think we have the whole story here. Annie is too good of a spy to let being tailed throw her off. She was settled before she left DC, and now she's spooked. There has to be another factor at play here." Auggie started playing with his stress ball as he reviewed his discussion with Annie again.
"Like what? What are you thinking here Auggie?" Joan inquired as she perched on the desk not far from Auggie's keyboard.
Auggie sat for a few minutes, mulling on the question before offering an answer. He sat forward in his seat before replying to Joan, "I don't think she is alone there Joan."
"Come again?" Joan practically demanded in return to Auggie's assertion.
"She has somehow received more intel on Fischer from somewhere, more detailed than what we have on him. That intel must have confirmed that he's made her, that he knows she's a spy."
"That's quite a leap of logic, Auggie." Joan rebutted, acting almost as a devil's advocate.
"Maybe Joan, but can you think of anything else that would cause Annie to deviate from her protocols and the plans we had established?"
"Honestly, no. Annie's field work over the last several months has been nothing short of stellar. She's followed protocol, taken fewer risks, and asked for help more than she ever has in the past. But, she has taken more initiative than she used to as well. She came up with her cover for this op, she built out the NOC for it, and she managed to find Fischer with limited input from us. You are going to have to find a bit more proof for me to believe that she's getting help from outside the CIA, Auggie." Joan recited back the qualities that made Annie one of the best up and coming agents at the CIA.
"Do you ever wonder what drove that change in Annie? What if everything here is connected?" Auggie put forth, sorting through the last few months.
"Maybe it is, Auggie. But would that be the worst thing? Neither of us can help her in the field, and frankly I'd be ecstatic to know that there is someone with her on the ground for this. Wouldn't you?"
"If that is the case, I'd be happier knowing who it was."
"Annie wouldn't work with someone who she didn't trust, Auggie. But if you won't let this go, follow the trail, figure out who it is."
Annie hung up the phone and started twisting it in her hands.
"Well, that didn't go the way I thought it would." Annie stated as her head dropped to the arm of the sofa she was leaning against.
"No?" Eyal questioned as he shifted in his seat to face her a little more.
"He gave me what I wanted, what we wanted, but begrudgingly. I don't think he believed me, or at least didn't believe it was the whole story. Which means he's good at his job, because it isn't the full story."
"Annie, don't borrow worry. It won't do you, or us, any good. You've gotten the okay to change the purpose of this mission. Focus on getting irrefutable intel on Fischer, show Auggie your instincts were right. We can worry about the fallout later."
"Yeah, okay, you're right. Let's plan this out." Annie said, starting to stand from the sofa.
Annie grabbed her laptop from her bag near the desk and connected to the secure CIA VPN. A detailed map of the area surrounding the hotel that Fischer was staying at was the first thing she pulled from the CIA Database. She also started a database query on all active ops running in Tallinn that were accessible at her clearance level; she hoped Auggie would do the same on his end for everything he had clearance for and then send along anything she should be aware of.
While Annie was working on her laptop, Eyal pulled out his own and started writing an email to Saul.
'Saul,
I know I owe you for the Fischer file so asking for additional help is a little out of line, but can you find out if anyone is running an active op on Fischer? Also, do we have any ops active in Estonia, particularly Tallinn?"
-Eyal'
Eyal was aware that Fischer seemed to be a higher priority target for Mossad, given the amount of intel in the file, and was hopeful that they would get additional information from Saul. Annie continued making use of the skills she had honed while in Africa so rather than disturb her Eyal ordered dinner for them from room service.
Once Eyal had finished ordering their dinner Annie turned her laptop to face him.
"Here is the hotel Fischer is staying at, Savoy Boutique." She said, pointing to the red highlighted building. "Here is our hotel." Annie then pointed to the green highlighted building. A lot of old town Tallinn was between the two hotels.
"What's around the hotel Fischer is staying at?" Eyal asked.
Annie zoomed in on the 4 block radius of Fischer's hotel. They were in luck, not only was there another hotel across the street from his that looked like it had rooftop access, there were plenty of shops and boutiques they could pop into if needed.
"This is good, we have quite a few options here. We can use the hotel roof, here," Eyal started brainstorming a plan of action, "to determine Fischer's routine, if he has one. Then later on we can use the shops and cafes to follow him at a distance if that's needed."
"I'm going to stick out like a sore thumb, Eyal. Fischer knows me, he'll be able to pick me out of a crowd easily." Annie said, reluctance coloring her words.
"What do you say to me taking point on this part, Annie?" Eyal asked. "Consider it the sole condition I'll ask for on this mission? You can set the rules, we'll follow your gut, but let me be the one out in the open for now?"
Annie sat back on the sofa, taking a moment to pull her hair up in a messy bun, while she thought through the request Eyal had made.
"Okay." She acquiesced a few minutes later. "It makes sense, honestly, because I can keep playing to my cover story if we need to later. He has no idea about you, except that you, in theory, exist as my fiance. He doesn't know what you look like, and only knows that you are Israeli."
Eyal was only slightly surprised at how quickly she agreed to his request. He knew that her impulsiveness and recklessness had been tempered over the last few months, especially since Stockholm, but he could see in that moment that she had truly become a tempered, seasoned agent.
He leaned over and caught her lips in a kiss, still reveling in being with her again. As they broke apart Annie let out a slight chuckle which led Eyal to look quizzically at her.
"I can't say I ever expected to be pulling together a mission plan in a t-shirt and panties with a man who is wearing just his jeans. We aren't the most professional pair are we?" Annie quipped lightly.
"Does it matter, Neshama? No one will ever likely know or care about what we wore when we planned how to take down a KGB agent, will they?" Eyal bantered back at Annie as he pulled her into his lap. "Besides, we work really, really well together, don't we?"
Annie looked down into his eyes from her position in his lap as she whispered back, "Really, really well. But then again that doesn't surprise me, some of the best agent pairs I've ever heard of were partners outside the agency too."
Eyal closed the laptop that sat on the table behind Annie and started to pick her up to take her back to the bed when there was a knock on the door. Annie slid down Eyal's body to stand in front of him as he cursed under his breath quietly in Hebrew.
After Joan had left his office Auggie pulled on his headphones and started looking for clues about Annie's potential ally on the ground. His typing filled the room as he started pulling up passenger manifest for all the flights and trains that arrived in Tallinn over the last two days. He had no idea what names would pop up on those lists, so kept his mind open as he started 'reading' through the lists.
Auggie limited the origin of the flights and trains to EMEA and Russia, pretty sure that Annie's potential ally would be from somewhere she had been before during her time with the agency. That cut the flight list in half and cut the trains down by a quarter. He started with the newest flights on the list, the ones that had arrived between Annie's flight and now. He connected to the known informant and asset lists as well as known agents from other agencies around the globe. That list of passengers took a couple hours to run through, as he listened for names that may not have been on either list but a name he knew through Annie.
He came up empty handed, but, if he was honest with himself, he hadn't really expected to come up with anything for those manifests. Auggie then kicked off the same process for the flights that had arrived in the 6 hours before Annie's had arrived. About an hour later his computer pinged, surprising him, and the list of names being read out through his headphones stopped.
"Match Identified" rang through the headphones instead of the endless list of names. "Eyal Lavin"
"Fuck. Annie, what are you doing?" Auggie ground out, frustrated, as he pulled his headphones off and dropped them on the desk.
Annie and Eyal sat on the sofa once again, holding plates with their dinner, quietly chatting as they ate.
"How's Danielle?" Eyal asked, and he was surprised by the sigh that escaped Annie as she put her plate on the table in front of them and grabbed her wine glass instead.
"Danielle's fine." She stated before taking a sip of her wine. "She's decided to stay with her husband and work on their marriage."
"That's good though, right?" Eyal parried back, confused a little at Annie's frustration about the topic.
Annie sighed, then let her shoulders sag before responding, "Yes, of course it is. It'll be better for the girls if their parents can make their marriage work. I'm just being an overprotective little sister."
"That's not all it is, is it? You wouldn't be this frustrated about it if it was just that."
"No. You're right. Michael, Danielle's husband, who hasn't had a job for months, which he lied about to Danielle, finally got offered a position. Which is great, I don't begrudge him a job at all. I just wish it wasn't in California and that I wasn't about to lose my place because of it. I'm not looking forward to moving back into my safehouse again so soon after getting to move out."
Eyal mulled over Annie's words, trying to pull out the part that was troubling her the most. It didn't take him long at all to realize that the part bothering her most was losing the physical home she had. Losing Danielle and her nieces and her guest house home grated against the part of her that wanted a HOME.
"Move into my place in DC. Don't move into your safehouse, come stay with me."
Annie's head snapped to look Eyal in the eyes, "Really?"
"Yes, move in with me."
"Okay." Annie said before placing her wine on the table and kissing him soundly.
