Chapter 5
Not wanting to dwell on why Irina might have wanted to protect him, Jack decided to change the subject. "You indicated that there was another protocol established based on Irina's work?"
Elsa suddenly looked uncomfortable, as if she regretted having mentioned it in the first place.
Jack's eyes narrowed as he studied her carefully. "Children," he guessed.
Elsa nodded, not meeting his eyes.
Jack pressed his advantage. "I was half right the other day in your cell, wasn't I? Sydney was an accident. Irina was never supposed to have children." Elsa heard the triumphant sound in his voice but, looking up, saw the stricken look in his eyes.
Elsa winced. "No," she said softly. "No, she wasn't supposed to have children. Moscow felt that children would too severely limit her mobility. Her handler reported her accidental pregnancy with some irritation. Remember, their communication was on 4 month cycles by that point. She reported detecting the pregnancy immediately following one of those contacts; by the time he was aware of the situation, 4 months later, it was too late to order a termination without causing too many questions – she had just started her 3rd trimester and was showing."
"But I always wondered, reading that report. Russian agents don't have 'accidents' with birth control. Of course, she could convince her male handler that she had made a mistake, but as a woman reading her file - the timing was too perfect. I couldn't understand why she had done it. That is, until I decided to have Aaron."
"And why… based on your study of her file… do you think she chose to have a child?" Jack asked slowly. Jack's back was to her, as he gazed out the window. She couldn't see his face, but could hear the raw emotion in his voice.
Elsa paused, momentarily at a loss. A sharp knock on the door interrupted her before she could respond.
Jack looked over, startled to see Neil Caplan stride in. He watched him approach his wife, taking her hand, assuring her that Aaron was fine. Jack felt a surge of antipathy towards him. By rights, they should be allies – targeted by the KGB, lied to by their wives. But Caplan had known all along, hadn't been abandoned as Jack had. In reality, there was little common ground between them.
"Mr. Caplan?" he inquired coldly.
"Elsa, who's this?"
"Neil, meet Director Bristow," replied Elsa drily.
"You're the son-of-a-bitch that threatened to take our son?" Caplan snarled, his face darkening as he turned to face Jack.
Clearly, thought Jack, the feeling was mutual. "I'm the son-of-a-bitch that granted your wife defector status," snapped Jack. "And if you'll excuse us, I wish to finish debriefing your wife. Alone."
"No."
"Yes."
Each man glared at the other. Elsa put her hand on her husband's arm. "Neil," she said quietly. "It's okay. It's not what you think." He remained motionless, his eyes locked with Jack's. "Neil, please," she said pleadingly. "It could have been you." Caplan looked down at his wife, his face softening as he saw the tell-tale brightness in her eyes.
"I'll be back in 30 minutes," he said grudgingly, squeezing her hand. He brushed past Jack, not looking at him, on the way out.
Neil, it could have been you, she'd said. "You were prepared to leave your husband at the end of your assignment," Jack accused, diverted from their earlier discussion.
"I was trained to leave my husband, yes. It was always anticipated that there would be a point of diminishing returns, or another assignment which had more priority."
"And you were ready to do that at any point? I thought you said you loved him," retorted Jack, his anger rising. Perhaps she was no different from Derevko. He wondered if her husband knew how quickly she would have abandoned him.
"I would have left him because I loved him," she said softly, her hands twisting in her lap. "The cyanide capsule. They would have triggered it if I had refused."
Jack was bewildered. "You injected your husband with a cyanide capsule that was intended to compel you to return? Why would you do that?"
Elsa looked at him impatiently. "It should be obvious that the protocols for this mission resulted in a high likelihood of the agent falling in love with her target. It was the element that made the agent most successful in gaining access to classified information, and remaining undetected over long periods of time. This risk was identified in advance, and the agent was instructed to drug her target early in the relationship and insert the capsule. It served as a reminder for the agent of where her final loyalties lay. If she refused to return, the capsule would be activated and there would be no reason for her to remain."
Jack looked at her, aghast. "That was Irina Derevko's recommendation?"
"No. She never recommended it."
"But you said earlier that the cyanide capsules were due to Derevko."
Elsa looked at Jack as if she were a teacher with a particularly dense pupil. "We were required to memorize her case file summary, to ensure we understood the risks. Perhaps that will answer your question:
Agent Derevko succeeded beyond all expectations in her assignment. Remaining undetected for 10 years, she provided the KGB with a wealth of intelligence that would not otherwise have been obtained, and developed a model for infiltration of the enemy. The unfortunate attachment she developed for her target-
"Attachment?" choked Jack.
"You were married for 8 years, knew her for 2 years more. Are you telling me you didn't know she loved you?"
"She lied to me about so many things…," he said, his voice trailing off as he looked back out the window.
"Not about what mattered. Her case file was clear. Her handler was frantic towards the end, once he had figured out what had happened." She looked over at Jack, who still had his back to her. "There's more."
"Go ahead," he said hoarsely.
Elsa resumed:
The unfortunate attachment she developed for her target, which resulted in her forcible extraction,
"Forcible extraction?" Jack spun around. His hands had clenched into fists.
"She refused to be reassigned. They had to kidnap her to bring her back to Russia." Elsa resumed again, holding up her hand so that Jack would let her finish:
The unfortunate attachment she developed for her target, which resulted in her forcible extraction, was subsequently addressed through reprogramming at the Kashmiri facility of Muzaffarabad. She returned to active duty 10 months later.
This analyst recommends that, to avoid future conflicts of interest for our agents on similar assignments, a device be implanted in targets that can be triggered remotely.
"And that's how the cyanide implant was developed," Elsa concluded.