Chapter 3
Lee arrived at Amanda's house and knocked at the door. Fortunately, everyone else was gone so they had the run of the house. Amanda answered the door looking both cheery and a little befuddled. She explained that Mr. Stringle told her that he was some type of genius or speed reader or something and memorized her name and found her in the phone book. He just showed up in her backyard. She explained to Lee that she had told him that Lee was from the State Department as he brought him to the backyard.
Amanda also mentioned that Mr. Stringle had been recruited by a man named Tolst.
"Tolst?!" Lee said with a start. They had heard of him but no one in the west had seen him. "Well, where is he?" Lee was a bit confused as he so no one. He was bewildered when Amanda pointed up to the treehouse. She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. Lee looked at the ladder to assess whether it would be sturdy enough to support him. It appeared sound so he climbed.
Mr. Stringle explained his real name was Zhmed Doorlof and he had a particular gift where he can remember information instantaneously and then run calculations. He had been recruited by Tolst because of this gift. Most importantly, he wanted to defect.
"Let's take him back to my apartment and call Billy and Francine," Lee told Amanda. "If we can get the opportunity to catch Tolst and help Zhmed to defect, this would be a huge win."
Billy Melrose received a call from Lee who was at Amanda's house.
"Billy, you're never going to believe this," Lee started, "Stringle, the patient Amanda was interrogating, he's in her treehouse."
"He's in her what?" Billy barked. "What the hell is the guy doing in her treehouse?"
"It seems he has some gift with memory. He memorized information from a photo she showed him and he was able to track her down. Get this, it seems he was recruited by Comrade Tolst."
"What?"
"Yeah," apparently Tolst has plans for this gift he possesses. His real name is Zhmed Doorlof and he ran away because he wants to defect. I'm going to check with a contact at the State Department and Amanda is going to take him back to my apartment. Can you meet us there?' Lee asked.
"I'll be there. I'll bring Francine with me." Billy said as he hung up the phone. He turned to Francine. "That was Lee. That interview of Amanda's is turning out to be much bigger than we thought," he explained. "The man was recruited by Tolst because he has some memory gift that can be used by the KGB. Amanda is taking him over to Lee's apartment. We'll need to meet them there."
"Tolst?" Francine questioned, "I don't think he's ever been seen outside Moscow. He's usually pulling the strings from afar."
"Yeah," Billy considered. This must be something pretty significant to get him here." Then Billy remembered "Oh damn! I think Beamon may have stormed out earlier. He and Scarecrow got into some shouting match because Amanda called a Flash Priority without his authorization. Before we go, can you go make certain you excuse the Freshman candidates for the day. I'll deal with Beamon tomorrow."
"Ugh," Francine shook her head in disgust, "nothing like the aftermath of a pissing match between men. I'll take care of it."
SMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMK
The candidates had been working for the last few hours on some class assignments wondering how long they would need to stay when Francine Desmond marched into the room.
"I guess since Beamon decided to take the day off so you can all wrap it up for today and come back tomorrow." She was clearly annoyed.
"Is it true the patient that Amanda King was interviewing was speaking Russian?" Tony asked, scraping up the courage.
"It doesn't concern you." Francine responded hotly.
"Excuse me," said William a bit nervously, "Um, we are supposed to be learning, wouldn't it be a little helpful to hear what Amanda heard? You know, to recognize it?" The other candidates, including Kristen, looked hopeful
"Really?" She looked at the room, still annoyed but seeing all the hopeful faces she realized the candidates were probably right, they should not suffer because Beamon was slacking on his duties.
"Fine." Ms. Desmond answered back. "Wait here and I'll go get the tape. But we need to make this quick."
She returned a couple minutes later and played the tape for the group.
Kristen listened intently and then spoke:
"I did nothing wrong. We were talking about a television show, nothing else. I swear I told her I was from Helsinki, but I don't know if she believed me. My English is terrible. I'm sorry, I'm trying." Kristen translated. Mouths dropped around the room.
"You speak Russian that fluently?" Francine looked at her incredulously.
"Yeah. My grandparents are Russian immigrants" Kristen responded. "I've been speaking Russian my entire life."
"Huh." Francine said, thinking this Freshman agent may be useful to make certain this potentially valuable Russian defector understood them. It would take too long to get someone from Translations. "How comfortable are you translating in person?"
Kristen felt excitement running up her spine. "Not a problem at all." She said ready to sell herself..
"Ok. Come with me. The rest of you can go," Francine told her, dismissing the others.
The other candidates filed out giving Kristen looks of excitement, with a clearly annoyed look by Todd.
"Good luck" Tony smiled and called to Kristen.
Kristen walked with Francine down the hall, through the bullpen and into Mr. Melrose's office.
"This is Freshman candidate, Kristin Adler" Francine introduced her. "She translated Russian faster than most of the boys in Translations. She may come in useful today if this Mr. Stringle, or whatever his name is, does not speak English well."
Kristen stood up straight, feeling proud, yet nervous, even a bit terrified. She'd heard Mr. Melrose could be tough, so she wanted to make a good first impression.
"That might not be a bad idea," Billy said to Francine. He then turned to Kristen, "We've tracked down the patient Amanda King was interviewing. From what we understand he's been brought into the U.S. against his will and is being used by a very dangerous KGB agent. There is some sort of talent he possesses, but we don't know what. He speaks English, but it may be a bit broken. We want to make certain he understands what we're asking of him. You are also young and non-threatening in appearance so this may be help to put him at ease. Are you up to the challenge?"
"I'm willing to help wherever I can." Kristen said. The nervous excitement continuing to build up.
"Ok. Let's go." Billy said.
After a brief ride, they arrived at Lee Stetson's apartment. Lee had no success with the State Department as the disarmament talks had completely stopped all further defections. Lee was hopeful between all of them, they could find a way to catch Tolst and help Zhmed.
Billy knocked on the door of the apartment as they arrived. Kristen had heard Lee Stetson was a senior agent, very skilled and a had a reputation as a womanizer. However, she'd also heard that since he started working with Amanda King, he had settled down quite a bit. She was curious to meet him. Lee answered the door. He was a very tall, athletic looking man of his mid thirties. He was quite handsome, almost too much so. Seriously? American James Bond? Kristen thought to herself.
"Who's this?" Lee asked, pointing to Kristen.
"Kristen Adler," Francine replied. "She's a Freshman candidate and fluent in Russian. She translated the tape Amanda took outside the hospital room instantaneously. It took the Ruskin and Martin twice as long. I thought she might be helpful"
Kristen felt a sense of pride that Francine spoke so highly of her.
"Oh, ok." Lee replied with skeptical look on this face. "Come on in."
Lee was a bit reluctant to use one of the kids, but if she was as fluent as Francine said, she should be fine.
"Kristen," Amanda King stood up as Billy, Francine and Kristen entered the room. "It's good to see you. We haven't talked much in class."
"I guess not," Kristen said, now feeling a bit guilty about judging her early on. "It's good to see you too, Mrs. King."
"We are both Freshman agents, please call me Amanda." she said. "You've already met Lee." She turned toward Lee and explained, "We sit next to each other in Beamon's class." Truth be told, Amanda was happy for a chance to connect with another Freshman agent.
"This is Zhmed Doorlof," Lee chimed in. "While his English is decent, he's a bit nervous and not completely fluent. We want to make certain there is no miscommunication. That's where you come in."
Kristen turned to Mr. Doorlof, and greeted him in Russian. His nervous face immediately brightened when Kristen spoke in his native language. She now understood why they needed someone who could speak to him in his native language, if nothing else, to put him at ease.
Lee turned to Kristen and explained, "We need to know why Comrade Tolst has brought him here and what he has planned for him. Can you ask him to summarize how he arrived and what has happened so far?"
Kristen turned and addressed him as Mr. Doorlof. He immediately asked her to call him Zhmed. She then asked him to take them through how he was recruited and what they've asked him to do. They spoke for several minutes, at which point Kristen turned to the group.
"He says that he has a gift. At home they call him the human computer. He can instantaneously remember any series of numbers or data with just a glance. He can then perform any number of computations with that information. He said when Tolst came to his village, he tested Zhmed for hours. When he performed well, Tolst recruited him. He told Zhmed he needed do this service for his country. He was never told what exactly what they expected of him. He was flown here via Helsinki and told to pretend to be a tourist from Finland. He was on his way from the airport when the car accident occurred. After leaving the hospital they stopped at a restaurant to eat. When he went to the restroom he looked through a phone book and found Amanda's phone number and address. He chose you as you had been the only person who had been kind and talked to him like a normal person. He thought you might help him. From there, he went to Amanda's home and hid in a…treehouse? Did I understand that right?"
Lee chuckled and said, "Yeah, that's right. Don't ask."
Kristen continued, "Kyle, the assistant to Tolst who met him at the hospital, gave him instructions to report to his hotel and, at some point, he would be brought to the Russian embassy. From there, he doesn't know what they had in mind for him. He was frightened, so he ran." Kristen paused for a beat, "He wants to defect."
"Thanks, Kristen." Billy smiled at her. "Good work."
Amanda sighed heavily. She stood up to go to make more coffee while Francine made a call to someone else at the State Department. The call took several minutes and it was clear from her expression that Francine was getting frustrated. She was finishing up the call as Amanda returned with the fresh pot of coffee, "Well, the State Department will make one concession. He can stay in a safe house until we're finished interrogating him. Then they want him on a plane within 72 hours." She sighed
"Well, for what it's worth," Mr. Melrose said, "I managed to alter a police report stating he was found with an illegal passport, and there won't be any mention of his intended defection."
Kristen interpreted the conversation back to Zhmed. "No dices, huh?" he said in broken English back to the group. Kristen gave him a sympathetic smile as she and Amanda both shook their heads.
Lee turned to him, "Zhmed, the disarmament talks have just about shut the door on any defections. State Department thinks your case is a political minefield." Kristen interpreted what Lee was saying to Zhmed.
"We're sorry, Zhmed." Amanda said.
Zhmed spoke in very broken English, "Russian Commissar sent me here, American Commissar send me back. Who cares what I want."
"We do!" Amanda said. "But were can't make it happen by ourselves."
Zhmed turned to Kristen and suggested he could return to the KGB and find out what they are looking for. Maybe then they would let him stay. He communicated that if he returned he had a 98% chance of being killed once he returned to Russian soil. He was willing to do whatever he it takes to stay in the U.S.
Kristen translated it back to the group. Amanda felt to was too dangerous, but she could see Lee was thinking about it closely. "You know, this is a chance to get a line on Tolst"
Francine responded, "Are you sure you want to trust someone you found in a treehouse?"
"We don't have many options, do we?" Lee responded tensely.
Zhmed turned to Kristen, his eyes wet with tears. He explained that he feared for his family, but if he became a citizen, he may be able to send for them. If they sent him back, his speech broke, heavy with emotion, he was certain they would kill him. She felt real empathy for this man. He was not much older than her grandparents would have been when they fled Russia.
Kristen turned to the group, "He's afraid for what will happen to his family if he is returned. He's hopeful that if he becomes a citizen he may be able to send them." She paused for a moment, "I know I'm just a Freshman candidate so my word doesn't mean much, but I think he deserves at least a chance to save himself. If the State Department sends him back, we'll never know what Tolst, if that's his name, has planned. He may just try again."
Billy, Francine, Lee, and Amanda all looked at each other.
"I could hang for this," Billy said, "but if he can bring us Tolst's head, the State Department would have to let him stay."
Kristen translated back to Zhmed. He looked relieved, terrified and overjoyed all at once. He thanked them for letting him show he could be a good American.
Over the next hour, they worked on a plan while Kristen translated back and forth. Zhmed was using more English. He was actually better than he gave himself credit for, but she translated to make certain he completely understood.
Kristen silently felt a weird sense of deja vu, but not. One of the significant reasons she wanted to become an intelligence operative was because of her grandparents. They were part of a wave of refugees known as "displaced persons" fleeing the depressive conditions in Europe after the Second World War. In the years that followed even until now, Russian persons were simply seen as threats to democracy. The irony was that it was this democracy that attracted them to the United States in the first place. During the 1950's and 1960's, because of the rampant discrimination and mistrust of the Russian immigrants, her grandparents felt the need to keep a low provide in public. They practiced their English to remove any accent and raised their children to be good, responsible Americans. However, they only allowed Russian to be spoken within the privacy and safety of their home. It was the one place they could preserve their heritage. Many of those who mistreated people like her grandparents were intelligence operatives. Kristen felt the need to change the narrative within the intelligence community to separate those who posed a threat to the U.S. and those who lived here and were proud to be Russian-Americans. Part of that was to expose those who sought to exploit good people like Zhmed for their own selfish gain and need for power. The irony of this assignment was not lost on her. It also told her she was exactly where she was supposed to be.
Later that day, they watched outside the Russian Embassy waiting for Zhmed to appear. The plan was the would set up a drop for Zhmed to slip a note with Tolst'a plan. The drop was a shopping basket with a bag inside. Amanda posed as a meter maid while Lee donned a pair of coveralls to appear to be there to pick up stray shopping baskets. Kristen was not yet part of the plan, but sat back in the van with Francine watching it go down.
Unfortunately, the plan went awry when someone yelled out "He's making contact with the American's" and an undercover KGB operative threw an incendiary device to destroy the note. Lee tried to run to grab the note when a man pushed Zhmed into a car and pulled away. Amanda took off to chase him but was unsuccessful in catching up to them. Lee was able to get a small piece of the note from which they needed to try to determine what they may be looking for.
SMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMK
Kristen was thrilled they kept her in the investigation. She was sent to review all files that were being moved the next day. She didn't mind doing the grunt work, it was all part of the learning process and she was just glad to be a part of an actual investigation. She enlisted Tony to help her locate all records to be moved the next day. She reported back to Lee and Billy with what they found. She handed the report to Billy who looked it over. Kristen advised as to their findings, "There are thousands of files going out tomorrow. "
"He'd be after the cream," Lee replied. "Highly classified and strategically important."
"Well, according to this report," Billy said, "The only Z class files that are being transferred tomorrow afternoon are medical, from the Pentagon and slated to be destroyed."
"Medical?" Lee responded questioningly. "What would Tolst want with medical files? Z class is sensitive only."
"We don't know," Kristen responded. "These aren't anything but academy physicals, boot camp statistics, there's some steroid tests, data on combat fatigue."
"Must be a mistake." Lee responded.
"Um, well, after what happened today, wouldn't Tolst maybe cancel his plans?" Kristen asked.
"No, it was part of the plan. He was ready for us. The more setbacks the more this guys just digs in." Lee responded.
"Meanwhile, we've lost Zhmed," Billy pointed out. "If we can't figure out how the Russians plan to take those files, we may never get him back."
After several hours of analysis of the information, the teams were able to pinpoint the trucks to be hit by Tolst. When Lee attempted to pull Zhmed from the truck, they found he'd been wired with an explosive. That meant they had to back off and fine another way.
From the information in the truck they learned that the files Zhmed was memorizing were related stress tests given the pilots who were part of project called Looking Glass. While Kristen felt she could not add much, she was going to take this opportunity to soak up as much as she could from these veterans. She learned more today than she had in the last several weeks of training.
Kristen noticed how in tune Amanda was with Lee. They complimented each other's abilities like two sides of a coin. She could also see there was something more going on that they were trying to hide. The chemistry between them could knock over a linebacker. It was obvious they were sleeping together as they looked at each other like a snack. But it clearly went deeper than that. She'd heard through the water cooler talk that Lee was quite the playboy, but that he'd changed in the last couple years. Kristen couldn't help but notice the way Lee and Amanda looked at each other was the way her mom and her stepdad, Hank did as well. Her mom always told her that while Kristen's dad was her first love, Hank was her true love. She understood that partners were not supposed to get involved, but these two had some HEAT.
Kristen was finding that she genuinely liked Amanda. She was a mom, but had a whole other side to her that made her so cool. She was confident, but not cocky - something she could teach Lee. She was caring, but tough, smart, but down to earth. She was the whole package and Kristen felt she'd been given a gift as the was the only other Freshman candidate to discover it. Going forward she was going to make sure to be friendlier to Amanda King.
SMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMK
The next morning Kristen received a call that Amanda had come up with a great plan to try to get Zhmed and they would need her help. They were going to cause a distraction, pull up next to Zhmed and get him out of the car. Apparently, Amanda and Zhmed bonded over Maverick, the TV show.
As they were leaving, Amanda explained to Kristen, "When I was interviewing him, he was mesmerized with American television, particularly Westerns."
"So, he seems to be really interested in American culture," Kristen responded.
"Yeah. I thought what better way to get his attention to let him know it was us with an ad for the Maverick reruns on TV."
"That's actually kind of brilliant," Kristen responded. "Thank you for thinking of me. I'm so glad to be part of this assignment. I want to thank you again for being so nice to me. I kinda feel like I don't deserve it."
"Come on," Amanda said. "You're being way too hard on yourself. You're really young and I'm over 30. I know when I was in college we used to say never trust anyone over 30."
"We still do," laughed Kristen. "You're actually really cool. I'm glad I'm getting to know you."
"Me too," said Amanda. "Now with a little luck, maybe we can get Zhmed.
Beamon drove the distraction car to block the agency limo. Meanwhile, Kristen and Amanda pulled up in a taxi with a Maverick sign on top. Another agent drove the taxi and quickly pulled up and slammed the brakes next to Zhmed. Amanda and Kristen waved at Zhmed. His face lit up and her jumped out of the limo and dove into their car.
"I knew it was you when I saw Maverick," he said as they took off. Amanda pulled out a binder with photos.
Kristen asked if he could identify any other men. Zhmed looked and then blurted out at that one of the men in the photos was Tolst. Kristen interpreted it back to Amanda.
Amanda grabbed the phone and let Mr. Melrose know that pilot Gary Hannigan was actually Tolst. It turned out that Gary Hannigan was scheduled to be at the base that afternoon. Armed with this information, Billy went to Hannigan's home pretending to be agency security assigned to bring him to the base. Kristen handed a Military Police Uniform to Zhmed to wear so he could blend in without Tolst seeing him.
When they arrived at the Air Force base, Kristen and Amanda stood back while Billy and Lee walked Tolst through the gate toward the awaiting Looking Glass aircraft. Zhmed, dressed in the MP jumped out in front of Tolst, clearly startling him.
"This is checkmate," he practically shouted to Tolst.
Tolst, clearly recognizing the trap, turned to run. Kristen saw him heading back toward them and thought: This is what you've been training for. You need to stop him. She jumped out and ran to cut him off. She grabbed the open gate, put all her weight behind it and rammed it back as Tolst approached, hitting him square in the face and bouncing him back toward Lee. From there, Lee pulled him back and swung at his face, making contact with Tolst right in the jaw, knocking him onto a vehicle parked near the gate. Lee was then able to pick him up, subdue and arrest him.
After Tolst was placed in handcuffs and taken away, Lee, Billy and Zhmed walked back toward them, Amanda ran up to hug Zhmed. Kristen followed Amanda and did the same. Kristen felt as if she should could dance. Her first assignment and they saved a man trying to defect to avoid certain death. The pride was swelling up in her. She wished she could tell her grandparents, but knew this feeling alone would need to suffice for now.
"I think we need to celebrate" said Billy.
"Well, since you are the interpreter, maybe you can ask Zhmed how he'd like to celebrate," Lee smiled at her.
Kristen turned to Zhmed and asked what he wanted to do. His face brightened and said he wanted to go for American food.
"Cheeseburger and French fries," Zhmed shouted loudly. "I am going to be an American now. I want to eat American food." He said in his thick Russian accent. He turned to Kristen, "Is it ok if I speak English?"
"Of course," Kristen answered in English. "You'll need to practice it more now. For today, I'll just help you with the words you don't know."
"That would be great," he said. "All of you have been so nice. I feel like this is a dream to be here."
"My babushka said she felt the same way when she and my ded arrived here from Russia,"Kristen told Zhmed. "That was years ago. They've been very happy here, but made certain we all maintained our Russian heritage."
"I knew you must be speaking Russian a long time," Zhmed told her. "Your accent is perfect."
Lee then put a hand on Kristen's shoulder. "You did a really good job back there," he said to her. "Tolst didn't know what hit him, literally. He clearly was not expecting to catch that gate in his face. You jumped into action quickly and used the resources around you. I think you have the makings of a really good agent."
Kristen felt like she could fly. "Thank you, Mr. Stetson." She replied. "That's a huge compliment coming from you."
"Call me Lee," he said. "Russian grandparents, huh? That's why your Russian is so conversational." Lee laughed.