The Scorpio Ranch, Australia
In shock, Anna and Robert could only gape as Robin took Charlotte's call. Robin turned the speakerphone on.
"This is Robin Scorpio. Who's this?" asked Robin.
"My dear, how good to hear your voice. You sound much more cheerful than the last time."
"What do you want with me?"
"So much to the point just like your father," said Charlotte. "You saved me and I would like to show my gratitude by facilitating an exchange. You have something I want and vice versa. Let's deal."
Anna stood by Robin and said, "No deals especially with you. Never ever contact MY children again."
"Anna, I presume? You are being needlessly overprotective. My motives are entirely honorable. Once this transaction is done, we are even," said Charlotte. "Robin, I have … access to your bank passbook and divorce papers signed by Dr. Sinclair. Your freedom in exchange for any notes in your possession regarding past work. Additionally, a statement on what you did to erase the archives and how to restore them. I think that's fair, don't you?"
"You're supposed to be dead!" exclaimed Robert.
"Of course, the entire family is together. As for my demise, I must say that I'm grateful for my second chance. I mean to make the most of it I assure you," said Charlotte. "If you agree to terms, drop the items at a location I specify. You will find your items in the same place. No tricks just a fair exchange."
"That's fine with me," said Robin.
"Robin! No!" came her parents' voices.
"This is MY decision. If it wasn't for Charlotte, I wouldn't be here," said Robin. She turned her attention once more to the phone. "I agree to hand over all the notes I took with me and describe how to recover the computer files. One more thing. We leave each other alone. No attempts to kidnap, contact or coerce me through my family and friends."
"Agreed. Such a wise, brave, resourceful and daring individual. You are wasted in the sciences, my dear," said Charlotte. "I am texting the coordinates to you at this moment. The items will be in place within the next eight hours. In fact, the location will be the same place where your parents left me my present."
"You sound well," said Robin as if she were talking to her next door neighbor. "No side effects from the treatment?"
"I feel better as the days past. No ill effects from your shall we say unathorized additions to my treatment," said Charlotte.
"How did you find me? Is Peter with you?"
"Your parents are not the only ones with resources or friends. Peter sends his regards," said Charlotte. "In less than twenty-four hours, you can put aside this unpleasant episode and begin life anew. It's very liberating I find. Goodbye, Robin. Remember, follow your heart, always."
The connection was disconnected.
"She's up to something. I can hear it in her voice," said Anna.
Robin stood up. "Vincent and I will go to wherever these coordinates are and-"
"No. Vincent and Genji will go. You will stay here," said Robert. "Where is Vincent? Asleep? Vienna was very tiring on everybody."
"He's catching up with his parents," said Robin. "His mother Pavla has been frantic to talk to him."
Anna looked over Robin's shoulder reading off the coordinates. She fiddled on her phone. "The drop is at the Hotel Vladivostok. I doubt Charlotte is anywhere near it though."
"I'll see if Heath got a trace on the call. Unlikely but worth a try," said Robert.
"What's that about a location?" asked Robin.
Anna was thoughtful. "It's the roof. Her people. Her present. Her sense of humor is vile."
"I'll let Vincent know," said Robin as she left the room.
Anna and Robert faced each other. They were not happy.
"Andrew and Faison. Robin and Charlotte. How did this happen?" asked Robert. "What did we do wrong?"
"It's some sort of cosmic punishment for past, present and future sins. That's the only explanation," said Anna. "I want them out of our lives."
"That's what we're working on," said Robert.
"That's only Faison. Charlotte is a whole different kettle of fish."
"We'll add her to the soup, somehow," said Robert.
"I get the feeling that she's more dangerous than Cesar."
"Andrew checks Faison. That's one line he won't cross. What keeps Charlotte in check?"
"I don't know but I intend to find out," said Anna.
WSB Headquarters, NYC
Connie and Frisco strode down the sidewalk chatting about the weather. A few quick turns verified that they were not being tailed. They ducked into a seedy diner for an afternoon snack. After they placed their order, they got down to business.
"Lionel Beam will be doing a medical evaluation on Ross at my request tomorrow," said Connie softly.
"The Mad Doc?" asked Frisco.
"That may be but he's ours," replied Connie. "I'll be here in the morning but off the clock by noon. While Ross is out of the office, I need you to find something, anything that will stick. You've had full access for most of the day now. You haven't found anything?"
"The audit hasn't turned up any … any smoking guns," said Frisco. "I've scanned his individual case files. Ross is a dedicated company man through and through. I mean he even scheduled his wedding around two ongoing operations."
"What about systems access? You said there was something there."
"He initiated a diagnostic program the day that systems went haywire. I'm not a programmer and I can't tell if the code did anything malicious."
"You think it did?"
Frisco nodded. "The timing is too close to be coincidental."
"Go on."
"The internal systems logs for that day are conveniently gone. If I wanted to check out backups, I'd have to go through the new systems guy Bill. I don't trust him enough to do that," said Frisco. "But with Ross gone tomorrow, who is Bill going to report my request to?"
"Right. Have you heard anything from the other team?"
"Not yet but I know they're on it," said Frisco. "It would be better if I could use internal resources but I can't."
"That would tip off Ross," said Connie.
"What if I don't find anything?"
"Then I fall on my sword, eat humble pie and take whatever Ross throws at me but I won't give him the satisfaction of resigning," said Connie. "He's not going to like the evaluation. He's gone tomorrow. Take advantage of it."
Frisco picked up their order from the counter and brought it to the table. There was a sandwich for him and a salad for Connie.
"The team will be looking at the GEM disc, too. There has to be something important on it for Tim to hide it the way he did on the boat."
"Lay off on that, Frisco," said Connie. "It's vital that we deal with Ross and don't forget about finding Tim's killer. I don't think it was DVX. It's not their style."
"But the Gems-" began Frisco.
"Frisco, I've only got you for a few more weeks. I'm trying to get the most out of you," said Connie. "Ross and Tim are your assignments. Focus on that. I'll … I'll look into the Gems. Leave them to me."
The Barn, Villa Scorpio
That evening Maxie visited with Patrick and Emma in the cottage while Felicia checked in with the team. Lars escorted Felicia down into Command and Control.
"Talk about good camouflage. I'd never have guessed this was here," said Felicia coming down the stairs.
"It should look more rustic when the weather improves," said Lars. "We're stuck on our analysis. A fresh perspective could get us unstuck."
Lars introduced Felicia to Dani and Alys who she had not met before. They updated Felicia on what conclusions they had reached.
"By crossmatching what is included in these old records against what SIMON was initially provided with, we can piece together what data was pulled out," said Alys. "That data involves three people - Robert, Anna and Cesar Faison."
"What kinds of information were removed?" asked Felicia.
"The largest gaps were in 1991 and 1992, specifically the events from Venezuela and onward," said Giles. "We have Anna and Robert's own recollections about that time period. We matched up the folder data against SIMON then against their notes."
"And?"
"More gaps," said Alys. "Every operative is trained to notice and report more rather than less. We find it hard to believe that these gaps are there because the agent forgot to report them. This leaves two possible reasons. One, that the agent did not know these facts or, two, these facts were omitted for a reason."
"A reason like removing incriminating evidence?" asked Felicia. "Are there signs that the data is tampered or altered?"
"That's a possibility but I think that whoever did this opted for the simpler approach," said Lars. "Altering this many files would have taken time and forging may not have been his or her skillset."
"True." Felicia began to flip through the folders. She opened one at random and began to scan through the documents.
"Also, these are secured files. I've lost count of how many security stamps there are," said Dani. "Whoever is responsible would have had a high level clearance, right?"
"There's a problem," said Felicia. "We need to get to Frisco."
"What problem?" asked Lars.
Felicia held up one document. "This one is an internal only document. Complete secrecy is implied." She picked up another folder at random. She leafed through it. She pulled out one sheet of paper. "This is from the main archives. See, it's stamped from the Washington Bureau. The archives is a closed library. You can't just remove documents, especially folders like this, without someone noticing."
"When did the Bureau move from Washington to New York?" asked Lars. "Perhaps the move afforded someone the opportunity to do some judicious data theft."
"Mid nineties I think."
"What do we have so far? Someone at a high level on the inside in the mid-nineties who wants to hide some information about Robert, Anna and Faison," said Alys.
"Someone who may still be there," said Felicia. "Get Frisco on the line. He has to know."
Shortly, Frisco's image was displayed on the screen. He was dressed for sleeping.
"Hi, honey, right on time. I was just turning in early," said Frisco.
"I'm here with the team. They have something for you." Felicia changed the camera setting to include most of the team.
"I'm all ears."
"Examining the files manually, we've found gaps in what's in SIMON, in the missing files and in Anna and Robert's own logs for the time period of the Venezuela operation and going as far back as the late seventies," said Alys. "In fact, gaps exist in operations and time periods involving Robert, Anna and Faison."
Frisco's expression turned grim. "He always turns up in the worst places. Discrepancies in three different data sources is … is suspicious. How did it happen? All Bureau files were scanned then fed into SIMON. There shouldn't be that many discrepancies for this long."
"We are theorizing that the original files were scanned prior to the destruction of the physical files. But at some point in the years before the digitized data was provided to SIMON, someone took and hid the data away," said Lars. "The timestamps of 1993 on the data files support the theory."
"Tim's doing?" asked Frisco.
"It can't be," said Felicia. "He wasn't technology director in 1993. He was running the analysis division. I looked it up. I doubt that he had the ability to physically remove these files and put them on a disk. "
"Perhaps Tim found it somehow and put the data away for safekeeping," said Giles.
"If he did why not come forward with it sooner?" asked Frisco.
"There are hundreds of files here. Would he have had the time to study each one to really know what he had?" asked Dani.
"Probably not," said Frisco. "Look, I need something more concrete. Missing data is all good but-"
"Based on the type of documents, we're sure that it was an inside job at Washington HQ," said Felicia.
"How sure?"
"Very," said Lars.
"What is so important about Venezuela? Other than the obvious, of course," said Frisco.
"We focused on Venezuela based on the sheer number of documents associated with that time period. It may not be about that specific operation," said Alys.
"But it could be about someone," said Frisco.
"Anna, Robert or Faison?" asked Felicia.
"No. Venezuela is old business. It's not commonly known but it's not flagged either," said Frisco. "This is not about an event. This is about a person, a thief, a mole. Anna said that Faison had a mole inside the WSB. This is proof."
"You have someone in mind don't you?" asked Felicia studying his expression.
"Whoever it is had a high enough clearance in the nineties to do this. He or she had to have been involved in cases about Anna, Robert or Faison," said Frisco thinking out loud. "And, they had to have enough pull to keep this buried. A few people fit that description."
Felicia warned, "I know that look on your face. Don't jump to conclusions."
"I won't," said Frisco. "There's one more data point to look into."
"What's that?" asked Lars.
"Me. I was … involved in the Venezuela operation," said Frisco. "Send me the list of missing data for that time period. I'll compare it to what I remember. Maybe, just maybe, I can figure out who it is. It's someone still on the inside. I know it is."
"If you're thinking of who I think you're thinking, you can't do this solo. You shouldn't," said Felicia.
"I'll have backup. I promise," said Frisco. "Have you had a chance to look at the Gem DVD?"
"It's next in queue," said Giles.
"Good. Wait! I've got something for you." Frisco disappeared from the screen the returned. He held up the copy of Chase's notepad. "I know this is some kind of writing and it's in code. Can you run it by SIMON for me?"
Giles took a snapshot of the screen. "Will do, Frisco."