Command and Control, The Barn
The clock display said 00:20 - twenty minutes and counting down. Voices floated through the room.
Left. Go left.
I'm in position. All clear.
Heading up.
On a long trestle table sat three large monitors with individual keyboards and mice. A team member sat in front of each one monitoring the activities of the London team as their faraway voices played out over the monitor speakers.
The London team - Vincent, Edgar and Raine - were all equipped with protective vests with a mini camera in front and one in the rear. Each one was paired with a remote team member who could see what he or she was seeing and more importantly watch their backs for them. In a sense, it was six people breaking into Faison's London base not three. Anna watched over their shoulders.
"First floor is clear," said Edgar. His camera view displayed the living room.
"Affirmative. Proceed to second floor," Genji instructed. He pressed a button and his monitor view split into two panes. One showed Edgar's progress up the stairs. The other pane showed Feargus and Maeve Campbell keeping the caretaker occupied in another part of the apartment complex.
Giles and Alys watched Vincent and Raine examine Faison's old desk. The same desk where Vincent had found Robin's locket.
Raine coughed as dust was thrown in the air by their inspection. "No housekeeping?"
"Caretaker has a bad leg," said Vincent. He rifled through a drawer.
Anna glanced at the clock. It said 00:15. She pressed a button on a console and said. "Too long to look. Stuff your bags with everything and get out. We'll sort things later."
"Hardly a stealth operation," said Giles.
"It's time to stop being too careful and cautious," replied Anna.
The noise of people descending down the staircase behind her made Anna turn. It was Andrew followed by Dani and Khamchatta.
"Mum, off to the store. Must keep up appearances," said Andrew. "How's the op doing?"
Anna shook her head. "Turn around and go back upstairs. Don't worry about any of this."
Andrew caught a glimpse of Feargus then Maeve. "What are they doing? Why are they on the op?"
"Edgar needed a diversion. He stopped by the Campbells to give them some of Ian's personal effects and some pictures from his current vacation. The Campbells volunteered to help," said Anna. "They seem to be good people."
"The best," said Andrew. A small smile played on his lips as he watched with fond affection the elderly couple who had looked after him until he was three years old.
On another screen, Vincent and Raine indiscriminantly emptied the contents of drawers into large black nylon bags. On Genji's display, Edgar toured room after room. Making sure to take short video recordings of each one for later study.
"Ten minute mark," said Alys.
In a small stark room, Edgar opened a closet. Its doors creaked loud as a gunshot in the empty space. A green cardigan and a white blouse hung in the closet both wrapped in plastic.
"Take that!" cried Anna. She tapped Genji's shoulders several times. "The sweater, the green one. Take them both!"
Genji relayed the instruction to Edgar who removed the clothing from their hangers, rolled them up and tucked them under his arm.
"Why, mum?" asked Andrew.
"The green cardigan is Robin's. I think," said Anna. "No, I know they're hers."
Vincent and Raine had finished with the desk and were scrounging through various boxes in the room.
"Books in this one," said Raine. "Clothes in the other. What is that smell?"
"Clove cigarettes. Faison's brand. Must be in the clothes," said Vincent. "There was a box here that was ... interesting when I was here last." He opened a series of boxes until he got to a small unmarked carton box. "Here it is. Bag please."
Raine held a bag open as Vincent dumped the carton's contents into the bag: a thick manuscript, writing pens, a pad of paper full of writing, a red velvet pouch and an oblong cherrywood box.
"The caretaker is finishing his tour of the vacant flat. Time to move out," said Genji.
"We're not finished," said Edgar. "Five more minutes."
"This is a break and run. Bug out now," commanded Anna.
"Copy. Moving," replied Raine. She and Vincent shouldered their bags and ran pell mell down the stairs. Edgar beat them down to the first floor by only a minute. He left the flat and opened the back of their rented van parked on the curb. Raine and Vincent jumped in. They closed the doors. Edgar drove two blocks and parked.
A short while later, Feargus and Maeve walked alongside arm in arm and got on the van.
"How'd it go?" asked Feargus in the passenger seat in front.
"As quick and dirty recon and grab jobs go that was acceptable," said Edgar. "Are you all right? You look flushed."
Maeve chuckled. "Nothing a pint won't cure, Edgar. We're glad to be close to our daughter but we do miss Sicily."
"And the sun, the warmth, my volcano," said Feargus in wistful tones. "Ach, best not to dwell on things past."
Edgar activated his IPhone and gave it to Feargus saying, "Here's someone who'd like to say hello."
Andrew waved and smiled on the phone display. "Hey, you two!"
"Look, Maeve, it's the wee lad." Feargus pointed at the display.
"Not so wee now. How tall you are, Andrew," said Maeve beaming.
Andrew moved closer to Anna and put an arm around her. "Feargus, Maeve, I'd like you to meet my mum, Anna. Mum, Mr. and Mrs. Campbell."
Maeve nodded. "He takes after his father mostly but there's a bit of you in his face."
"I can't say ... express how thankful I am for all you've done for our family, all this time," said Anna in a choked voice.
"Och, it was our pleasure to see to the boy but I'm right furious an' sick at heart over what my grandson Ian did to you and your people."
"He was misguided and influenced by the wrong sort," said Anna.
"Aye. A few years in prison ought to give him time to think about his future."
"Like Robert told you before, we will watch Ian's ... progress where he is now and hope for the best," said Anna. "I know people can change if they want to."
"You're very understandin' and forgiving. Thank you," said Maeve. She and Anna seemed to share a look between then that meant more than their words implied.
Feargus held up a clear plastic bag with a brown and red crystal inside. "Andrew, lad, I'm giving this to Edgar to give to you. I know it twas your favorite."
Anna narrowed her eyes at the crystal but said nothing. Andrew perked up. "That's the one. My collection should be nearly complete with that."
"Not much useful to me here," said Feagus. "And the other bit will have to wait for fairer weather."
"Other bit?" asked Andrew.
"Figaro. We have him boarded at a farm out in the west country. When the seas are better, Salim said he'll arrange transport to bring him over there." Feargus looked to the side. "Our tube stop is comin' up. We'll be saying goodbye then, laddie."
"Only farewell, capello. I'll be visiting soon. I promise." said Andrew.
Some time later, Robert slammed the file folder on the desk in the team's new headquarters in a private mansion in the eastern section of Paris. "What is this, Anna? Some kind of gigantic cosmic coincidence?"
"Luck's finally turning over to our side," said Anna. She and Alex both held magnifying glasses to the documents found in Sinclair's institute work file with Dimitri looking over their shoulder. Nyssa had scanned them in and the team had worked frantically to analyze what they had. Over her shoulder could be seen Genji and Alys bent over monitors working with the London team as they sifted through the day's find. "The signatures of Peter Sinclair match between the institute's record and bank documents connected to the Foundation. We're not absolutely sure that it's the same person but I'm inclined to think they are one and the same."
Robert said, "We have to be sure."
"I ran the search and retrieval twice. SIMON found five instances of a Peter Sinclair mentioned in documentation. That's four coincidences too many."
"It does fit from a scientific standpoint. His expertise and interest corresponds to the Foundation's true purpose. Plus, based on the speculative timelines we have, SInclair and Elena could have met in Beauchel while she was having treatment there. It's all plausible," said Andre. Beside him, Heloise read over SInclair's file while Nyssa finished scanning in Robin's records for electronic transmission to Command and Control.
Felicia, Nestor and Shane's images appeared on another monitor. In the background, Nestor worked on his laptop. Felicia said, "We know that Robin was working for the Foundation as a researcher. We've confirmed that Sinclair was a visiting researcher at Coudray and that his project team was one of the two that Robin interviewed for. Peter links Robin to the Foundation and vice versa."
"Robin's journal confirms that she joined his specific project because she thought it could help the most people. How ironic," said Alex. "It's apparent to me that Robin and Eve had different goals. Robin is more pragmatic and looking at the pharmacological and biochemical end of the resarch spectrum. Whereas Eve was more into pure research for research's sake vis a vis the synaptic nerve project."
"Is this your roundabout way of telling us that Robin truly worked on Compound X?" asked Anna.
"It's an inescapable conclusion," replied Alex.
"I'm not going to believe that until ... until I hear Robin say it," said Robert.
"Before we decide on next steps, anything from the London team?" asked Anna.
"The completed manuscript for the last Davnee book, an engagement book but the entries are in a code we haven't deciphered yet, a box with shards of blackened crystal inside it, receipts for various costly purchases over the years which may prove useful, schematic drawings of something and one journal. Scanning some pages in now. We think it's Robin's," said Giles.
"And the sweater?" asked Anna.
"It's Robin's size," said Alys.
On the display, Vincent added, "It's her scent, Anna. Her perfume. Faint but there."
Anna closed her eyes and looked away.
Robert's face hardened. "Faison to Robin to Sinclair to Elena. That's enough confirmation for me."
Anna cleared her throat. "The next step is the next link in the chain - Elena Cosgrove and the Foundation."
"My team will be mobilizing," said Robert. "I want answers and Elena has them. Since she's not inclined to come to us. We will go to her."
"I won't bother reminding you of restraint," said Anna.
"I feel like there's a clock ticking and we have to beat that clock," said Robert.
"There's something else," said Heloise. She held up the reverse of the picture of Krieg taken at the institute to Robert's view. "Look at the photographic timestamp."
Robert squinted, "2005-03-11.
Anna gasped. "He's alive.?"
"As of when this picture was taken in 2005, yes, but not for long," said Robert. "If he has Robin, he's a dead man walking. I promise you that. Nyssa, get us booked to Budapest today."
"No, Robert. There's a small airfield outside Paris that runs private charters. I use it often. Get there in an hour and a plane will be ready for take off," said Dimitri even as he began to dial on his phone.
"Thank you, Dimitri. Shane, get some toys together. Nestor, get into their system before I get there. I want to do this right, said Robert. "Felicia, you think you can find your way back to those cells in the cellar?"
"Yeah, sure. But they won't fall for the same trick as before, Robert. They're going to scrutinize everybody going in or out," said Felicia.
"I'm counting on it," said Robert. "I don't want Elena to have to guess who we are. I want her to know who she's dealing with from the start."
Andre looked at Robert. "What do you have in mind?"
"Leverage," said Robert. "Can you get me the number of Jackie Templeton? Anna, here's a thought, run a search on Cryllium or Cryllium Corporation against the Foundation records."
"Isn't that Holly's husband's company?" asked Anna. "Her dead husband."
"Uh, huh. My investigation in 2006 didn't show that Cryllium itself had the ... the expertise for biological research. They had the labs but not the right staffing for that sort of work. That stymied me at the time. I couldn't find the original source of the virus or the antidote."
"But the Foundation does or rather Peter Sinclair does," said Anna. "Cryllium could have been a dummy company."
"Or a test case scenario ala the Cartel gassing the town during Founders Day in 1991," said Robert. "The Foundation's allies are entrenched and strong. We're going to need a lot of evidence to bring it down. You know what I need. Find it."
"Ammunition on Elena. Understood," said Anna. "Say hi to Holly for me."
"Will do," said Robert. "Anyone else?"
"You said Cryllium, right?" asked Andre tapping on his laptop. He read from the screen. "Based in the Markham Islands with labs stateside."
"That's the one," said Robert. "The ownership documentation may be under the name of Holly Sutton or Holly something. I believe her husband used her as an owner to deflect interest. Him not being entirely on the right side of the law himself in his past business dealings. The name ring a bell?"
"I've heard it before or maybe read it," said Andre. "I'm running it by Thanos. He never forgets a business name. I'll ask him about the Foundation, too."
"He deals with them?" asked Dimitri. "I thought D'Ercy International stuck to chemicals and avionics."
"They do but Thanos is well-connected shall we say," said Andre. "I'll let you know if he finds anything."
"Is that how the Foundation did it?" Anna wondered.
"Did what?" asked Robert.
"Think about it. In a little over a decade, the Heritage Foundation has amassed a sizable bank account but, more importantly, influence and protection at the highest political and economic levels. It runs humanitarian projects and offices around the world and yet it has itself remained very opaque," said Anna. "How has it been able to hide these experiments it's done and ... and probably are still doing? Elena's an invalid but she's been able to get this off the ground through sheer force of will. It has connections to paramilitary organizations like D99. How has it been able to do this? Peter Sinclair and Elena are pieces in the picture but they couldn't do all that on their own."
"What's your theory?" asked Alex.
"I think they've married the stealth of an intelligence agency with the power and reach of big business. The Foundation partners or uses legitimate businesses, or seemingly legitimate ones, to do their outside work."
"Like contractors," said Heloise.
"Yeah. It keeps their hands clean and if it blows up, they're unaffected. They go on doing business as usual day in and day out. They use the non-profit structure as a shield from scrutiny or suspicion."
"It's like they took the Cartel model and modified it a little," said Robert.
Anna slapped her palm on the desk. "NO! No, it's not that. Remember Edward's letter that he left for you, Robert? It said a cartel of men and women. It's STILL the Cartel that we're dealing with here. The men had their turn. We foiled them. Then the women took over."
"That's ... that's reaching and-" began Robert.
"Is it though? Arielle, Helena, Charlotte. Elena. All women. We didn't know how they were connected but now we do - the Cartel," said Anna. Her face was alight with the excitement of discovery. "And who is the surviving male member of the Cartel?"
"Faison. To us, to Robin, to Peter, to the Foundation. Bloody hell," said Robert.
"Unless I've gone crazy, it all fits to me," said Anna.
"This is going out of our areas of expertise," noted Andre. "We're talking business and money and economics. That's a different fish from espionage."
Robert nodded. "Get Sean, our man of big business, on the phone."
Anna shook her head. "He's out of town today on museum business. I feel really bad leaving all that on his plate. I don't want to bother him unless I have to."
"We can't table this. It's too important."
"We do have another resource though. Someone who can't refuse me a thing," said Anna with a smile. "Edward Quartermaine."
"Fine. You go talk to your longtime admirer while I chat up my, um-" began Robert.
"Former lovers," Anna finished for him.
"How did you- I never told you about Jackie," spluttered Robert.
"Luke told me over drinks once," said Anna. "Besides, she a brunette, independent, intelligent and not bad to look at. Completely your type."
"Did you and Luke ever, you know?" asked Robert.
"We are not comparing score cards," said Anna. "He's one of your best friends and you know I don't poach married men. Besides, I like my men on the arrogant side."
"Just checking," said Robert. "All right then. We're off to Budapest and a date with Elena Cosgrove."
"London team, finish up and follow on to Budapest." Anna looked uncomfortable. "I'm going to talk to Edward then we're off to Skyview."
"The sanitarium? Why?" asked Robert. "You and Alex solo?"
"Filling in the gaps in our information about Peter," said Anna.
"Mac's tagging along so we should be fine," added Alex.
Before Robert could voice further objections, Anna said, "We have our assignments. Good hunting everyone!"