A/N: I've been thinking about the ownership of Chuck. Not too sure why, though. It's not like I can do anything about it.
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Brown sat at the bar, sipping a beer and keeping watch over Sarah. Chuck, Casey and Yuri, all wearing disguises, were outside in two CIA vehicles. All five were in contact through the open channel of their intra-team encrypted communications net. At Sarah's direction, Brown was making no particular effort to conceal himself or his interest in her meeting. They had decided that Selenica should know that she had obvious back-up. It would be expected in her role and, in any event, might make the man think twice about stepping out of line if he was tempted to do so. Selenica might remember Chuck and Casey from the prior night, and Yuri was just too conspicuous, so Brown had been selected for that task.
As Sarah sat down with Selenica, Brown said, "She's in the booth."
"Right," said Casey. "Any sign that Selenica's not alone"
"No. Everybody here is ignoring him," replied Brown.
"Right, Brown. Keep an eye out, though," said Casey.
"Will do, Major."
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"Jó napot, Dren. Azt hiszem, beszélnünk kell." [Good afternoon, Dren. I think we have to talk.]
At the use of his real name, Selenica started and sat back in the bench seat. He stared at the woman for a moment and then his eyes immediately darted around the room and settled upon Brown, sitting calmly at the bar. Expressionlessly, Brown returned the man's gaze.
Selenica refocused on the woman sitting across from him. "Rossz ember van. A nevem Lazlo." [You have the wrong man. My name is Lazlo.]
Sarah stared at him quietly, but did not reply. Apparently, she viewed such nonsense as not deserving of a response. Finally, after long moments of silence between them, he said, "Ki vagy te?" [Who are you?]
She held up a single finger. "Egy másodperc." [One second.] She switched to German, "Sprichst du Deutsch?" [Do you speak German?]
Selenica shook his head and shrugged. She tried again, "English?"
"Yes," he said. "I speak English."
"Alright. Let's speak in English then. My Hungarian isn't good enough for a long conversation and you don't speak German." She spoke English with a slight German accent. Her underlying English was British accented, as if she had learned English from a teacher hailing from that island nation. The prevalence of American movies had made Selenica sensitive to the difference between the British and American accents.
"So, I repeat the question. Who are you?" he asked.
"My name is Hanna Erhard. I am an officer of the BND. You remember us, don't you?"
"No. That name means nothing to me."
"Bullshit, Dren," she spoke harshly, her voice suddenly low and angry. "Without our training of your men you would have been massacred by the Serbs in the first month of the fighting. Cut the crap."
Selnica gave a low sigh. "Alright. Fine. Yes, early on your people were involved in training some of the men. Haven't heard from your group in years, though."
Sarah laughed without humor and said, "I hope you didn't think we had gone away and abandoned you?" She was polite and serious, but not particularly friendly. "Once we make an investment, we don't leave it behind."
"Are you here to turn me in? Send me to the Hague?" he asked. He didn't seem too frightened, but he was undoubtedly concerned.
"Dren, seriously. They told me you were smart. Try acting like it, for pity's sake. If I was here to turn you in, you'd be in the trunk of a car on your way to Serbia at the moment. We'd get a pat on the back from the Americans and my Chancellor would be a happy woman. Of course, I'm not here to turn you in."
"What do you want from me, then?" he asked.
"Why would you say that? Why do you think I want anything at all from you?"
"I'm just looking for an explanation, Ms. Erhard. It's not that I do not enjoy the company of a beautiful woman, but I am realistic enough to know that you didn't sit down with me for social reasons," he said.
"That's true enough. But, I don't want anything from you. At least not at the moment. Five...ten years from now probably, I will. Or someone from my office will, more likely. But right now, nothing. You are providing sufficient intelligence to the IH men. I can access what I need through them, at least what they share with NATO. No, Dren. That's the wrong question. The question you ought to be asking is what do you want from me?"
Selenica was still mentally at arms length from this woman. He didn't trust her and was wary of a trap. "Ok. I'll play. What do I want from you?"
"There you go. I knew you were smart, Dren. You want a warning that you wouldn't otherwise have. A warning I can give you that your IH friends seem to know nothing about."
"I'm pretty safe as it is, thanks. The IH protects me as I need it." He put last night's aberration out of his mind.
She was clearly annoyed at his answer. Her beautiful face held a deep frown. "Oh. Ok. Good. Then I'll be leaving," she said, clearly very frustrated, as she slid out of the booth and stood up. "In that case, good luck to you, Dren."
"Wait, please. Sit back down. What sort of warning are you talking about?"
Erhard sat back in her seat and said, "I don't like you jerking me around, Dren. I can leave right now and I'll be no worse off. You either are going to listen to what I have to tell you or you are not. Save us both a lot of wasted time and decide."
"I'll listen. I'm sorry. I'll listen. What is the warning?"
"It's a warning about an FSB covert action team that has targeted you," said the woman.
"The FSB? Why would the Russians be after me?" he asked, genuinely bewildered.
She shrugged. "I don't know. At least not for sure. Best guess? The Kosovo Assembly is on the verge of voting for independence from Serbia...again. This time, though, the West will recognize that independence. That's going to seriously annoy the Serbs and their Russian friends. The Russians seem to have set out to track down any Kosovo Albanians with warrants outstanding from the ICTY as a diplomatic move to embarrass the West. It's likely their hope that, with enough dust in the air about Kosovo Albanian war crimes, the West will hesitate to recognize the new country of Kosovo," she explained. "And, obviously, you are on that list of wanted war criminals."
"The IH..."
"Dren, if the Russians can prove you are who you are, the IH will run away from you as fast as they can. You think they want to face the Americans and tell them they've been protecting a wanted war criminal? Just how much loyalty do you think the Hungarian government will show you if your presence here goes public?"
Selenica was silent for a while, contemplating his situation. She was right, of course. The Hungarians had joined NATO less than a decade ago and were still making the effort to ingratiate themselves with their new big brother across the Atlantic. Finally he said, "Why are you warning me about the Russians?"
"You don't think thwarting the Russian's plan is enough reason? Fine. The Russians have influence in the Balkans through the Serbs. We Germans want influence there through the Kosovo Albanians. It's what I started with, we don't walk away from our investments. We've been keeping an eye on you, Dren. Who do you think arranged for the German KFOR unit to ignore the violence you stirred up in Prizren four years ago? We did." He looked startled. She smiled mirthlessly and said, "You're welcome."
Selenica snorted a laugh at that. "What can you tell me about the FSB team? What should I be looking out for?"
She took out her phone and pushed a few buttons. Twisting the phone around, she showed him a picture of Casey, shot from a distance and slightly out of focus. "It's a three man team. My partner and I have gotten pictures of all of them. Here's one."
Selenica immediately recognized one of the men from the prior night. 'Shit,' he thought. 'She's right. They are on to me. Damn.'
She swiped on her phone screen, and the picture changed to Chuck, similarly blurry. "Here's the second. They are both big men." Selenica grunted. "Here's the third." She showed him a blurry picture of Yuri. "This one's almost a giant. Two meters tall."
"Ugly bastard," said Selenica, with a grimace.
In her ear she heard Yuri say, "Hey..."
She twisted the phone around to look at the picture of Yuri. "Really?" she said. "I think he's kind of cute."
"Thank you," said Yuri in her ear.
"Quiet," said Casey in her ear.
"You recognize any of them? Seen them around lately?" she asked.
Selenica paused. Why should he tell this woman about last night's robbery? Reveal his humiliating experience? On the other hand, why should he keep it quiet? She already knew who he was. What did he have to lose?
"Yes. They attacked me last night. I saw the first two. The biggest one must have hit me from behind. When I came to they had taken my wallet and phone."
She looked at him with surprise and her eyes narrowed in concentration. He realized that, as beautiful as she was, she was also quite intelligent. A very formidable woman indeed. "Well, since you're still here it means they aren't sure it's you. At least not yet. They'd have taken you otherwise. They are skittish about mistaken identity. Ever since the Mossad screwed up in Lillehammer we are all a little more careful with that." She thought quietly for a moment or two, tapping a finger on the table. "They are probably checking your ID right now. What kind of phone did they take?"
"The new Apple smart phone," he said.
"Oh, that's good, at least. Those can't be cracked. Whatever you had on that isn't with them yet. You dodged a bullet on that one. How did they find you?"
"I don't know. I've been careful. And the IH guys have given me bulletproof ID."
"Nothing is bulletproof, Dren. Don't let anyone tell you different. Come on. You have to think. How did they find you?"
"I don't know. I don't."
"Are you doing anything different than you've done for the last few years? Meeting any new people? Leaving town? Changing your routine?"
"My friends and I have an operation that's imminent. A strike at the Serbs..."
"Your friends... are the others trustworthy? Could one of them have sold you out to the Russians?"
Dren thought about it seriously for a few moments and shook his head. "No. They are all loyal Albanians. They wouldn't do that. They are excited about what we have planned."
"Well, if you are certain they are loyal, that must not be the source the Russians used to find you, even if the new operation against the Serbs is the only thing you've been doing differently. But..."
"What if my friends are loyal and yet the Russians somehow found out about the plan? About the operation?" asked Selenica.
"Well..." she looked like she was thinking hard about the possibility. "Do you think that's possible? Could they have gotten wind of what you and your friends have in mind and tracked you down from that?"
"It's more likely than the idea that any of my friends had betrayed me. It's a complicated plan and has a number of moving pieces."
"Certainly possible. Is it too late to call it off? Postpone it?"
"No. Absolutely not. It cannot be postponed. The timing is crucial to its intended effect," said Selenica.
Erhard sighed heavily. "Alright." She held up a warning hand. "Do not tell me what you have planned. I truly don't want to know." He nodded. "So what can you do about it? If your plan has to move forward and there's a risk the Russians are on to it, what can you do?"
"I'll have to meet with my men. We'll move it out of the city. We were going to do that anyway, but not for a few weeks yet. We'll just do it early. Move it early. And that will get me away from the Russians for a while. They'll lose interest in me and look for someone else."
"Alright. Be careful. If you are going to do it, you should do it immediately. You shouldn't waste any time. You don't know what the Russians know already. They could be right around the next corner. Hell, they don't even have to take you themselves. They could just tell the Americans where you are and you'd be in trouble. You have no idea how close you are to getting picked up by someone."
"Yes. I will contact my men immediately," he said.
She reached into the pocket of her ski jacket and took out two more phones, placing them on the table next to the one already there. Reaching back into the same pocket, she took out a small notebook and a pen. Carelessly she brushed the phones aside with her forearm, opened the notebook and began to write. "Here is a number you can use to reach me. It's a burner phone that can't be traced."
Selenica was looking at her phones. "Can you lend me a burner? The Russians last night took my phone."
"What? You only had the one phone?" she asked, seemingly startled by the request.
"Yeah, so, I don't have a phone right now. I'll have to get a new one and I don't know that I have time. Not with the Russians on my ass."
"Oh. Yes. Certainly. Here you go." She slid one of the phones across to him. "Not a problem. Just throw it away when you are done with it. It's got a full charge." She ripped the page out of the notebook and handed it to him.
"You sure it's not an inconvenience? You don't need it?"
"No. I've got another one in the car. Take it," she said.
"Thank you," he said.
"Good luck," she said. She stood from the booth and extended her hand. "You owe us one, but we won't collect for a while yet."
"Yes, I do. Thank you, Ms. Erhard. I won't forget." He shook her hand.
"Safe travels, Dren." She walked away, nodding to Brown on her way past. With a last expressionless look at Selenica, he turned and followed her out the door of the bar, onto the Budapest street bright with winter sunshine.
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Ten minutes later, Selenica left the bar alone and got into his Opel. Two blocks away Chuck was sitting in the back of the CIA's maroon minivan with Yuri. Chuck had his open computer on his lap. He said, "He's on the move guys. Look alive." Casey and Brown, in separate cars, acknowledged the alert. Casey was in front of Selenica's Opel, down the street in a non-descript CIA vehicle. Brown was in a similar vehicle, one block to the north, on a parallel street. Sarah was in the driver's seat of the minivan with Yuri and Chuck, located a couple of blocks behind Selenica's car. They had all donned disguises in case Selenica were to see them. Sarah, now wearing sunglasses, looked like a dark, shaggy haired, mustachioed man.
"He's heading east," said Chuck.
"Right," said Casey. "I'm on the move."
"Me too," said Brown.
Selenica stopped at a traffic light. Chuck said, "He's dialing a number...Ok. Got the number he called."
Yuri, headphones on his ears connected to Chuck's computer, picked up, "He's talking to someone named Jetmir...telling him to meet him immediately at the ...garage...Jetmir is ...ok. Jetmir is coming."
Chuck said, "He's still moving straight on the road. Now signalling a left turn. OK, turning left. North. Brown, you're up."
Casey said, "Ok, I'm turning left. Running parallel now."
"I've got him," said Brown. "Pulling in a few cars behind."
Sarah said, "We're passing you both." The minivan passed Brown's car and Selenica's Opel.
"He's dialing again," said Chuck. "Ok, got the number."
Yuri picked up, "Ok. Someone called Saban...Same..."
"He's bearing right at the fork," said Chuck, looking at the screen.
"Got it, kid. I got him," said Casey, pulling in behind Selenica as Brown dropped back.
Sarah said, "We're pulling to the left to run parallel."
Brown said, "I'll run ahead."
Yuri picked up again, "Anyway, same thing. Saban is going to meet him at the garage."
They continued running straight north, through Buda. Sarah said, "Brown, does it look like he's crossing the river? You're the most familiar with the traffic patterns here."
"I don't think so, Sarah. If he were, he'd probably be on Budaörsi útza. More access to the bridges from there. He's too far west as it is."
"Ok. Casey, I don't think we need to send one of us to loiter across the river," she said.
"Agreed, Walker," said Casey.
"Another call," said Chuck.
"He's talking to Frenk. Telling him they both have to meet him at the garage. Frenk and another guy," said Yuri.
This continued for another twenty minutes. Although they were tracking Selenica from the phone he'd taken from Sarah, they were visually tailing him anyway. If he lost the phone for some reason...finished his calls and threw it away, for example, they'd have been out of luck without the added precaution of a visual physical tail. One of the three cars was a bit behind him at all times. One was in front and one was on a parallel road. In this way, no one car was near Selenica for long enough to attract his attention. The coordinated waltz of the tailing cars worked better with a couple of additional vehicles, but Chuck and Yuri had other business to keep them busy while the cars moved north and were in no position to be driving at the moment.
Selenica made another call and the man, who's name Selenica failed to mention, agreed to meet at the garage.
They were getting to the northern reaches of Buda and traffic was getting lighter. Selenica made one more call, for a total now of six men meeting him. Selenica pulled up outside a large rundown garage. The area was quiet and somewhat shabby, with peeling paint and brown grass. Brown turned the corner and stopped a block away. Casey drove past and turned in a different direction. Each of the team's vehicles was not more than a block and a half away from Selenica and the garage rendezvous.
Chuck said, "He's making one more call...got the number..."
Yuri said, "He's speaking to Fatbard...meet at the garage...hurry, I'm there now and all the others are on their way...yes, everybody...and bring the prisoners...all four of them..."
There was silence in the car and over their communications net. Finally, Chuck said, "Prisoners? What the hell?"
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A/N2: The BND was, in fact, involved in early training of the KLA forces. During the violence in Prizren in 2004, the local German unit constituting the KFOR presence did, in fact, fail to intervene to quell the violence. (Unlike, for example, the Swedes in Čaglavica at the same time, who mounted a very muscular defense of the Serb civilians.) However, any connection between the BND and the reaction of the German force in Prizren was wholly fabricated by Sarah to connect two otherwise unconnected events for Selenica's benefit.
A/N3: In 1973 a Mossad hit team thought they had targeted a wanted terrorist in Lillehammer, Norway. They killed a Moroccan waiter instead. I'm reminded of the carpenter's adage – measure twice, cut once.
A/N4: I would like to thank my friend LetsGoRed for all of his suggestions on this chapter. The parts you liked are the result of his assistance. The other parts are mine.