The Bear

The Kremlin

“You look tired, Andrey.” President Novichkov leaned forward placing his elbows on his desk, the fabric of his sleeves digging into the leather pad atop the polished wood.

“I am fine,” he replied as he sat nervously across from the desk.

“Perhaps this job is catching up to you? It is a stressful place to work, my friend. Don’t be ashamed if it is becoming too much. We are not the vibrant young men of days long gone.”

“Perhaps a few days off would be in order.” Andrey felt the vibration of his phone in his pocket. There was only one number set to vibrate. He felt his face go pale.

“That would be a good thing. Even generals need some time off, from time to time.” Yuri folded his hands together as he studied his chief of staff. “I have a dacha, a beautiful place in the Crimea. And, it is far enough away from the troubles in that little rouge state,” he said with a smile. “You should take a few days and go down there. It will do you good, my friend.”

“A dacha?” Andrey looked up, his face almost completely white. He let his hand slide across his chest where his phone rested, the vibration feeling as if it was burnt into his flesh. His hand began to tremble.

“Yes Andrey.” Yuri was deeply concerned. “When was the last time you had a doctor look you over? We’re not getting any younger, and this business with the Americans isn’t helping you any.”

“I haven’t had any contact with any Americans.” Andrey’s eyes went wide. He immediately felt vulnerable, naked to the open world. He could feel his heart racing.

“It is the stress, Andrey,” Yuri replied. “You try and do too much yourself. You need to learn to delegate more.”

“It is the nature of the job,” Andrey noted. “Perhaps I will take the rest of the afternoon off.” Andrey put his hand up to his pocket again where the cell phone rested. Just the shape of it against his hand made him nervous. Maybe this was the day he could finally begin to turn the tables. He knew he had a call to make. “Good day, Mr. President.”

The meeting place was the same as before. Andrey sat on the bench in the square before the Helikon theater, but today, the sun was shining and the slight breeze was coming up from the south. The square was bustling with people going about their day. A few passersby shot glances his way, recognizing him for who he was, or at least who they thought he might be. He just felt like an old man sitting on a park bench. Nothing more.

“Good day,” came the greeting from behind. Donald slid down beside Andrey as he extended his hand. “Let’s see what you have.”

“We are taking a big risk being seen out here on such a beautiful day,” Andrey said as he handed over his phone. “Do you think that is wise?”

“Sometimes it is easier to be unseen in plain sight.”

“Yes, but even here in Russia, everyone has a phone with a camera.”

“That is true, my friend. The world is a very different place.” Donald slipped the device off the phone and placed it in his pocket. “When we both started in this business, we could never have imagined a scenario where the two of us would be sitting on this bench together.”

“Those are bygone days,” Andrey said with a chuckle. “Of course, in my wildest dreams, I could never have imagined this scenario either.” Andrey tilted his head back and let the sun warm his face. “My world was only that of planes and soldiers who did their job for the revolution.” Andrey turned his head toward his guest. “Your Russian is remarkable. I could never tell you did not belong here. You have been here a very long time.”

“A passage of time we have both witnessed, sir.” Donald stood as he slid his hands into his pockets. “I’ll be in touch.”

Andrey watched as his new acquaintance walked away into the afternoon light amid the crowded square as life around him went on. He only hoped his would as well.

The room was quiet as Donald inserted the cable into the device he had retrieved from Andrey’s phone and plugged it into the computer. A click on the corner of the screen made the computer go dark.

“What happened?”

“Just wait.”

The time seemed interminable before a square box became visible in the center of the screen. Donald keyed in a sequence and the screen went blank again.

“This program is weird,” Ivan whispered.

“It is supposed to be,” Donald replied. “If you plug this into any old computer, nothing will happen except the data would be destroyed if the program doesn’t open it within a given time frame. You need the right program to see what’s there. If someone were to randomly plug this into their machine, they’d see nothing. Most won’t wait that long before believing there is nothing of value on it.”

“Simple,” Ivan said. “But effective.”

“Exactly. Someone searching for it without the right program would leave it plugged in. The device knows that and would corrupt itself.” The screen came to life and Donald hit a few keys. “Now, let’s see what we’ve got here.”

“A map of the city.”

“With cell towers, Sasha.” He clicked where two icons displayed and the map expanded, dropping off outer areas of Moscow. “These are the towers the call bounced off.” He keyed a new command and color-coded lines appeared. “This is where the call went to, when our host received it.”

“He’s inside the Kremlin.”

“Right again, Sasha.” Donald pointed to the display and traced the lines with his fingers. “This is the routing the call took. We trace it backwards and, voila, this is where it originated.”

“I didn’t think that was possible,” Ivan noted.

“A couple years ago, it wasn’t. NSA has been working on a program like this for some time. These guys aren’t working very hard to cover their tracks with this phone either.”

“Probably using a burner. I assume they have those in Russia?”

“Oh believe me, they do. The black market is ripe with them. But since this guy keeps using the same one, I’m assuming he’ll toss it before too long. He knows he has our host in a corner and each time he sees the number, his anxiety climbs a little higher. It’s a psychological ploy.”

“So he keeps the pressure on simply by Andrey knowing the number.”

“Exactly, Ivan. Exactly. Who knows what is really being said, only the two on the phone. This device doesn’t pick up the conversation. It just tracks the path.”

“Now what?”

“Well, now we need to get into the city to get a track on the number.”

“How’s that done?” Anya asked.

“This device will pick up the number if we’re near the towers it is bouncing off.” Donald exited the map and shut down the computer. “But we can’t do it from here.”

“So we go to Moscow.”

“We go to Moscow, Sasha. And we have to develop a plan. This farmhouse has done its job. It’s time for us to move to the city.” Donald unplugged the device and slid it into his pocket. “We begin hunting tomorrow.”