AN: Hi Everyone! I'm back again, sorry for the long pause between chapters. We are in the home stretch here, only 3 more chapters left. As always, I do not own Covert Affairs or any of the characters. Reviews and constructive criticism always welcome!
Dreaming Through Regret
Chapter 15 - This is Gonna Take Me Down
It had been quite awhile since Joan had gone anywhere as an operative and not as a manager. It was raining as she exited the CIA private jet that had ferried her from DC to London City Airport. A London based agent met her at the end of the airstairs with a large black umbrella and led her to a black Mercedes sedan. As she settled into the back seat of the car Joan reflected on the call that had led her to London.
36 hours earlier
Joan sat in her office reviewing a file on an active operation in Saudi Arabia that had escalated beyond the on the ground agent's ability to handle. She cursed the name Khalid Ansari silently within the confines of her own head. She'd have to have the agent stand down and then find another path forward. She knew they were overstepping a bit on this operation, as it fell clearly within the realm of Mossad control, but what they didn't know couldn't hurt them.
Her desk phone rang and showed Auggie's office line. "Hello Auggie"
"Hello Joan, I have Annie on the other line and she's asking for you. Are you available to join me in my office to speak with her?"
Relieved to have an excuse to step away from the mess in Saudi Arabia for a few moments, Joan quickly agreed, "I'll be there in 5." before hanging up the phone.
She quickly collected the papers on her desk and placed them back into the folder for the Saudi Arabia Op before placing the whole folder in her desk and locking the drawer.
3 minutes later she was ensconced in one of the chairs in front of Auggie's desk listening to Annie through the phone.
"Joan, I need you in London."
"What for Annie? It's been a long time since I went into the field."
"I need a female boss, and who better than someone who has actually been my boss. It has to convince Fischer and I can't see anything else passing muster."
Joan pondered the request for a few moments before agreeing. "Okay Annie. But I need a lot more information first."
"Of course Joan. I've already sent everything I can to Auggie in regard to the state of things with Fischer as well as a rough idea for the next steps we could take. I've reached the end of what I can do on my own regarding planning an operation, so your insight once you're on the ground would be immensely helpful."
"Understood Annie. I'm impressed at what you've got here. I'll review it all once I'm in the air, but I likely won't be in London until the day after tomorrow."
"Thank you Joan."
"I'll let you know the details of my travels once I know them."
"Sounds good."
And then the line went silent.
Current time
It was late in the day when Joan had landed in London, which made for an easy trip from London City Airport to Belgravia where she would set herself up for the duration of her stay. Normally she'd stay at a local hotel near the London CIA offices, but this trip called for a more convincing location. Given her role as Annie's boss at the ILCN a nicer flat in a more upscale area was required, and this flat did not disappoint. The three story townhouse was located not even a block from Harrods off Brompton Road and within a quick tube ride and walk from both Annie's location as well as Fischer's Mayfair flat. Joan headed quickly into the master bedroom, knowing that she was to meet with Annie early the next morning, here at her townhouse, to plan the next steps of the operation on Fischer.
Annie knocked on the door to the upscale townhome that Joan was using while in London holding two cups of coffee. A few moments later the door opened to reveal a casually dressed Joan who invited Annie into the foyer.
"Morning Annie."
"Morning Joan. Thank you again for coming."
"You made a convincing case for it, Annie. This operation has been your best work to date with the CIA. Knowing when you've reached the end of your capabilities is one of the hardest lessons an operative has to learn. You learned your lesson quite quickly compared to some of the others I've trained." Joan praised her subordinate, "Walk me through what has happened here in London so far."
"Yeah…sure, okay. As you already know we were able to track Fischer to London after he departed Tallinn. I knew, from our discussions in Morocco, that his London home was in Mayfair. I've based myself in SOHO, not far from where we believe his flat is. Then, last Saturday, we were able to arrange crossing paths with Fischer at the Royal Ballet Theater's Annual Gala. He asked about the proposed partnership between ILCN and himself, and I let him know that I would be in touch with him by the end of the week after my boss and I had narrowed the list of options down. That's when I reached out to you and Auggie."
"Okay, and the outline of your plan moving forward is to meet with him as I pretend to be your boss at the ILCN? Then what?"
"That's where I need the help, Joan. I know how to tail someone, follow tracks, pretend to be someone I'm not. But that's all because it's just me to worry about. Add additional players and I'm lost, I don't want to create a half baked plan that could endanger others because I refused to ask for guidance."
"Good. Asking for help is not a weakness. Acknowledging you are out of your depth is something very few operatives are willing to face. Stellar operatives know that asking for assistance is not a failure on their part, it's a learning experience, and a way to continue to level up their skills."
"So what do we do from here?"
"We meet with Fischer."
"Okay."
"And you fill me in on all the players on the board." Joan added sternly.
Annie took a deep breath and sighed before looking straight into Joan's eyes and replying, "Eyal Lavin is with me, he has been partnering me since I arrived in Tallinn."
"Partner? Is that all there is to it?" Joan queried gently.
"Joan, that is EVERYTHING. Eyal is my partner, in every way he can be." Annie stated, with a small smile on her lips.
"I thought so." Joan replied simply.
Annie's head fell back to rest on the back of the chair she was seated in, "How long?"
"Since Tallinn. Auggie told me as soon as he knew Eyal had flown into Tallinn. I made the leap of logic to it being more than just on the ground spy backup. How long did you think you would be able to keep it a secret?"
"Honestly, I didn't think I'd manage this long. I just know that I will not let him go, no matter what the fallout from the CIA is. Joan, I love him, I need him. We fit together so well in all the aspects of our lives, doing this without him would be like losing an arm at this point."
"Annie, stop. I get it. Arthur and I may not have had to contend with being from different espionage agencies, but I do understand how you feel about him. I'll do what I can to get you approved for a close and continuing despite Eyal working for Mossad. You are too good of an agent to let this derail your career."
"I'd let it take me down if it meant I got to stay with him."
"I know Annie, trust me I know."
Three days later, Joan, Annie, and Simon Fischer were settled at a table in a small, posh restaurant in Mayfair. Per their plans Annie introduced Joan using an alias, Deborah Black, due to Joan having used her personal passport to enter the UK. Auggie had created all the back up documentation and paper trails needed to support Annie's claim that Deborah was her boss at the ILCN. Joan had taken the additional step of ensuring that, regardless of how this meeting fell out, the property they had settled on would be purchased. She had been just as awed by the Agadir property as Annie had been when she visited, so she had Arthur pull some strings to make the $1M purchase via the ILCN should it become necessary.
Annie and Joan stood as Simon walked to their table and shook hands with him before retaking their seats. Simon settled himself in before ordering a mineral water.
"It's good to finally meet you, Deborah. I was beginning to worry that Annie had been unable to convince you of the benefits of this partnership." Simon stated in a tone that bordered on arrogance.
"Let me assure you, Mr. Fischer, that Annie has done a wonderful job selling this relationship to not only myself but also the EMEA board of approvals. The ILCN has partnered with private buyers previously, but has never entered into a long term partnership with any single buyer. There were multiple discussions to be had at all levels before we could decide to proceed." Joan parried in her standard no nonsense tone.
Simon was caught slightly off guard by her response, he had not expected her to be immune to his charms. "Annie was not lying when she said she wasn't sure if this partnership would be agreed to by the ILCN then."
"No, Mr. Fischer, she was not. And frankly I was surprised she even brought it to be in the first place. The ILCN is meant to have no allegiances to any particular entity, whether that be country, religion, or individual person. This partnership flies in the face of that stance."
"But there is a partnership, correct?"
"Yes, Mr. Fischer. There is a partnership. But there are conditions."
"Conditions?" Fischer asked, leaning forward to place his elbows on the table between them.
"Well, just one. We chose the properties, you can either agree or not to partnering in the purchase."
"So I get no say in the properties? Can I even make suggestions of properties to review?"
"We are always open to suggestions, from all corners. But we get the final say in what properties are purchased."
Fischer leaned back in his chair, pondered for a few minutes before responding, "I find myself in a conundrum Ms. Black. I am used to making all my own decisions, I am not beholden to anyone other than myself. Why would I limit myself like this?"
Joan leaned forward to pick up her tea and took a sip before replying, "This condition is only on property purchased in partnership with the ILCN, it in no way inhibits your ability to try to purchase any properties you suggest that the ILCN decides not to proceed with."
"Ah, so you hold the keys to what we partner on, not my right to purchase properties that you do not want to purchase."
"Exactly, Mr. Fischer."
"Annie, you have been very quiet. What do you think of this?" Fischer asked, turning away from Joan.
"Mr. Fischer, I'm only one year into my tenure with the ILCN. I'm present today as a courtesy, because I brought your request to the ILCN, otherwise I'd likely be on a plane back to DC or on my way to scout another parcel of land to purchase."
"I slightly disappointed Annie. I thought we were on closer terms than that. Either way, I suppose that this agreement is more than I should have expected. Global NGOs like the ILCN are notoriously close doored to outside influence."
"Pardon me, Mr. Fischer?" Joan said standing from her seat.
"No offense intended, Ms. Black. I agree to your terms." Fischer said as he, too, stood, "I'll be seeing you, Annie." he directed at Annie, menace slightly coloring his words, before he strode out the door.
Joan sat back down in her seat, thrown off by Fischer's last words. "Is that how he said those words to you in Morocco, Annie?"
"Exactly, to the timing and tone, Joan."
"That's extremely disconcerting. I can understand your heightened paranoia around the man much better now. Let's get out of here." Joan stated before standing to pay for their drinks.
Two hours later, after deconstructing the entire encounter with Joan, Annie walked back into Eyal's flat. Eyal looked up from his laptop as she entered the living room.
"How'd it go, Neshama?"
"I don't know. Joan and I are both on edge after the way he left the restaurant." Annie said as she sat on the sofa next to Eyal. "He said the same thing to me that he did in Morocco, in the exact same tone. It even threw Joan off."
Eyal sat up and turned to face Annie before replying, "I don't like this Annie."
"Oh neither do I, and neither does Joan." Annie said as she pulled a small black case out of her bag.
"What's that?" Eyal asked, intrigued.
"A tracking device. Joan gave it to me with strict instructions on what to do with it. She made me promise to have it on my person at all times." Annie opened the box and pulled out a small device the size of a lipstick tube. "There is a panic button type feature on it. All I have to do is click the top down, like a pen, and it sends a signal to Joan."
"I'm glad she gave this to you. I already did not like this mission after reading the Mossad file on Fischer. I like it even less now."
"Me too, Bayit. But I feel like we are close to an end on this portion of it. I know Lena is still out there, and that this won't be done until we find her as well, but I can't help but think we are almost done with the Fischer chapter."
"I hope your feelings are right, Neshama."
The following night Eyal convinced Annie to join him at his favorite London restaurant, Blanchette, for dinner. The Parisian style bistro reminded her of their encounter in the city of lights over a year ago. The ambiance did a lot to calm her nerves, and after sharing a few plates with Eyal and a glass of heady red wine, she allowed herself to enjoy the experience with Eyal.
Eyal was pleased to see a little bit of the sparkle back in Annie's eyes. It had been missing since her meeting with Fischer the prior day. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to take her back to either his apartment in DC or his house in Tel Aviv. Knowing neither was currently an option, he settled for showing her more of why he considered London a second home. Blanchette was a new favorite of his, having found it after returning to London following their overlapping missions in Paris.
After several shared plates and another two glasses of wine, Annie and Eyal started walking back to his flat. It was not even a 15 minute walk from the restaurant and the evening was pleasant enough for a walk. Eyal tucked Annie under his arm and led the way towards his flat. The smile on Annie's face was exactly what he'd hoped for when he suggested they go out for dinner. Annie had been wallowing in worry for the last 24 hours, and it was not a great look on her, dinner had been the break she needed to get out of her funk.
Night had fallen many hours earlier and other walkers were few and far between. The whispered words the two shared were the only sounds that broke the silence for a majority of their walk. Suddenly the serenity of the night was shattered by the sound of a gun being cocked directly behind them. Eyal turned slowly, pushing Annie behind him as he did so. They were hardly surprised to find Simon Fischer standing there, gun trained on the pair.
"Why did you come looking for me, Annie Walker?" Simon snapped out at them, anger flowing through his words.
"What? Simon, I have no idea what you are talking about!" Annie answered, letting fear color her words. Her left hand, hidden behind Eyal, slowly made its way to her coat pocket where she push as hard as she dared on the small tracker there.
"NO! You brought that woman here, I know who she is! That so-called Deborah Black is actually Joan Campbell. She's CIA!"
"What are you talking about?" Eyal cut in before Annie could reply. He could feel her tremble every once in a while. Her fear was real, contained as she tried to keep it, and it showed itself in the subtle tremor of her hand on his back. He noticed her tap three times on his shoulder and assumed it was to let him know she had turned on the tracker.
"I'm not talking to you! Whoever you are! I bet you aren't even really engaged to her are you? Are you both CIA? Who sent you?"
Annie took a steadying breath before replying as calmly as she could, "Simon, I have no idea what you are talking about. The woman with me yesterday was my boss Deborah, Eyal is my fiancé, I am just an ILCN employee. Where is this coming from?"
"It's too much of a coincidence, you running into me in Marrakech. A beautiful blonde American, researching parcels of land in Africa. No one is that interested in land in Northern Morocco! You agreed to my help too quickly for a seasoned traveler, a single woman traveling on her own would be more wary of a man offering to help her. But not you, you agreed so quickly."
"Simon…" Annie tried to interject.
"NO! I followed you, I watched you. But you are good at what you do. Not one misstep and you almost had me second guessing myself when I saw you with him at the Gala. But you made a mistake, finally. You brought Joan Campbell to a meeting with me."
"I don't know a Joan Campbell, Simon! That woman was my boss, Deborah Black." Annie knew she had to keep him talking for at least five more minutes. Joan's place was close but it would still take her at least ten minutes to get to them. She believed that at least 5 minutes had passed since she pushed the panic button on her tracker. She caught Eyal's eyes with hers and saw the light click on at the realization that they needed to buy time.
Simon took a step closer to them, gun still aimed at them, "Oh, you are good, Annie Walker, you would have had me convinced except for one small thing. I know who you are now. You CIA agents think Langley is impenetrable. You are WRONG."
"Simon, I am not a CIA agent!"
"Enough! The CIA has a mole! I know exactly who you are, Lena Smith told me all about you after I sent her your photo."
Annie knew then that their cover was truly blown, and all they could do was stall for time. "You know nothing about me, Simon." Annie ground out, anger starting to overcome her initial fear.
"Annie Walker, CIA operative, currently working with OSP under August Anderson. Your current objective is to find Jai Wilcox's killer."
Simon continued reciting Annie's history with the CIA, but Annie tuned him out as she started looking for an escape route. Then she heard a string of words that turned her anger into fury.
"Sister, Danielle; Nieces, Chloe and Katja"
Eyal could sense the alteration in Annie's emotional state as Simon threw the names of her family at her. He knew that those words would shift Annie into a fight mode rather than a flight mode so he grabbed her hand in his and held it tightly.
"Leave my family out of this." Annie stated, venom for the man in front of them dripping from her words.
A flash of blonde from the alley behind Fischer caught Eyal's eye. He flexed the grip he had on Annie's hand three times to get her attention and then led her gaze to the slight blonde who was currently aiming a pistol with a silencer attached to it at Simon's head.
Simon's furious response to Annie's threatening words covered Joan's approach, and once she was within a few yards of him, she pulled the trigger with absolutely zero hesitancy. Joan had heard Simon's rantings as she neared the location of Annie's tracker. After hearing the names of Annie's family fall from his lips in anger, Joan had let any lingering doubts about eradicating this man die.
Mid word Simon saw Annie pull Eyal to the left, but, before he could make sense of the action, he had a bullet through his skull and he slumped heavily to the ground, to bleed out over the cobblestones.
As Annie saw Joan pull the trigger her only thought was to get out of the path of the bullet heading towards Simon. There was little to no chance that Joan would miss that shot, but Annie knew it was better to be out of range, the last thing she wanted was yet another bullet wound marring Eyal's body.
Joan had disappeared into the night as quickly as she had appeared. Annie knew there would be no sweep team coming to clean up after them this time, it was one of the only downsides to Black Ops. Eyal knew that they needed to get far away from the body bleeding out in front of them as fast as they could without drawing attention to the scene.
Eyal pulled Annie away down the street, pace quicker than it had been when they left Blanchette not 30 minutes earlier. Annie kept pace with him, anger and relief flowing through her system, pumping adrenaline to counteract the wine she'd had at dinner. Annie knew that Joan had exit protocols she would be following, so focused on getting the two of them back to DC. Eyal had them back in his locked apartment within ten minutes, and while Annie pulled out her laptop to book them flights, he started packing their things in the two suitcases they had, not caring what went in each one.
Annie had them booked on the next flight out of Heathrow into DC at 7:45 the following morning in the only remaining seats. It was nearing 1:00am, but neither of them could fathom sleeping nor were they inclined to discuss what had happened in the dark streets of SOHO that night. Instead Eyal pulled Annie into his arms, relief painted on his features, and held her tightly, not letting go until it was time to head to the airport.
