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The Company
Time: Sunday, July 10, 2011 (morning).
Place: New York City, U.S.A.
Last Event: Concluding some risky deals with the local underworld.
While Vinnie is still in Jersey buying big bags full of guns, Wen and Zhang return from Chinatown with a smaller sack stuffed with clubs, knives, and cash. It's clear that those two were in a fight, but the look on their faces is even clearer: "Don't ask!" They go to their rooms and catch some sleep. Vinnie arrives a few hours later, carefully stashes his purchases, and grabs some shuteye as well. By noon, everybody is reasonably well-rested – and certainly well-armed.
Over lunch, the Agents discuss how best to track down Russian mobsters coming into and heading out of New York City. The question: "Who knows what organized criminals are up to and won't warn them that we're looking?" The answer: "The police." Anabel feels confident that she could pose as a law-enforcement officer for the purpose of weaseling a little information – or at least speak with cops without arousing suspicions. However, this calls for some preparation.
Since Vinnie knows the city well, Anabel asks him to find her a "cop bar." While he's doing his homework, Anabel psyches herself up for the tricky task of impersonating a police officer . . . in front of the real thing. She settles on the story that she's a former New York City resident who immigrated to Israel, where she entered law enforcement; now she's back in the Big Apple on vacation, and visiting a police bar to get away from the family and back to sanity for a few hours. Lev, being Israeli, gives Anabel some details to fill holes in her cover – names of police academies and services, policy on American citizens, and so forth. After that, Anabel dresses conservatively and holsters one of the team's newly acquired Glock 26 pistols in a way that supports her story: discreet backup gun for an off-duty cop.
Anabel declares she that would prefer to go alone to the bar Vinnie identified. She rejects the need for backup; it's daytime, her associates know where she'll be, and dangerous gangsters aren't likely to be hanging around the place. Having a bunch of people tailing her in broad daylight won't make it any easier to walk into a building full of police officers and lie about being a cop! With that settled, she heads out.
The bar is owned by a former cop, has a law-enforcement them to its décor, and is hardly short on policemen even on a Sunday afternoon; that is, it's typical of its ilk. Anabel is the only woman in the place – and her looks cause quite a stir as she struts in. It's safe to say that the concealed pistol isn't the focus of the attention. Her initial encounter is with a would-be pick-up artist whom she quickly realizes isn't popular with the other patrons. Exploiting this opportunity is almost too easy: "Won't one of you nice men help me get rid of this masher?"
In less than a minute, Anabel finds herself rescued from the slimy cop. Her story about being an Israeli policewoman goes over well enough, and soon she's drinking and shooting pool with some of New York's finest. She skillfully directs conversation toward the subject of police work, and gets off a spiel about the frustrations of fighting Russian organized crime back in Tel Aviv. When she wonders openly whether anybody in the room has similar war stories, she gets blank stares – but one officer does mention that a detective he knows has been chasing Russians around the city. Anabel manages to extract this man's name (Mike Hanson) and precinct house, and then takes her leave.
While Anabel is out digging for information, Wen decides that it would be useful for everyone in the group to have a unified "mobster identification guide" bearing images of Georgi's men taken from the files provided by V. To create this, she needs a computer, suitable software, and a good printer. She works with Jili to make a list of the necessary equipment, and then has Vinnie take her shopping. The gear is easy to find, and the extra money Zhang took from the Chinese thugs covers costs. By the time Anabel returns, Wen has set up her new toys, loaded the FSB records from a USB key, manipulated the images, and printed out a handy one-page cheat-sheet.
The Agents opt to stay in for the night rather than do anything that might draw the interest of parties on either side of the law. On Monday, July 11, Anabel goes to look for Detective-Investigator Michael Hanson. She decides not to pack a pistol this time, to avoid trouble with metal detectors at the station, but brings along a USB key with the FSB files, as well as one of Wen's handy printouts. The trip to the precinct house starts out rather slow, with a long wait as the duty officer downplays, forgets, or simply ignores Anabel's request to speak with Hanson. Eventually, though, Anabel is accorded a brief meeting with the man, on the pretext of having evidence in which he might be interested.
Hanson proves to be an overweight, balding man in his fifties, with huge bags under his eyes and a distinct lack of fashion sense. Upon seeing him, "crooked cop" doesn't spring readily to Anabel's mind, unless mob bribes are considerably stingier than they used to be. Anabel soon finds Hanson to be a cantankerous old-school detective – harried, slow-talking, and decidedly not fond of technology (or anything newer than about 1986, really). His office is a mess of half-eaten junk food and towering stacks of paperwork, all piled up around a cluttered desk with a disused computer sitting on it.
Detective Hanson parks himself in a creaky chair while Anabel pitches her Israeli policewoman story. He either believes it or doesn't care to challenge it, because he's soon doing his old-fashioned best to bargain with Anabel for information. Anabel agrees to share her "case notes" (the FSB files on Georgi's men) in return for Hanson's help, and shows him what's on offer. Hanson pores over Anabel's photos, identifies one of the men as "Pavel Tartikov," and claims that the guy has mob ties and was spotted arriving at the airport three days ago. This coincidence and the obviously professional nature of the personnel files convince Hanson that Anabel has something worth trading for.
It's apparent to Anabel that Hanson has deduced that her files come from a national intelligence or security service. Her guess is that he figures her to be speaking informally for Shin Bet or even Mossad; certainly, he's reluctant to get involved in "international matters" without NYPD clearance. However, in exchange for a copy of her records, he's willing to offer an informal lead – something he can't back with proof, let alone pursue, but that someone with fewer legal constraints could act on. This proves to be nothing more or less than a recommendation that Anabel try a Russian restaurant called "Troika."
Anabel returns to the hotel that afternoon, taking care to avoid a police tail, and passes along her tip from Hanson. Some research reveals that Troika isn't graced with wonderful reviews but is open for business. After a brief discussion, the Agents agree that a few of them should dine there tonight. Anabel, Lev, Qoqa, and Zhang get the job, and plan to pose as two couples. Anabel calls the restaurant and, in a Russian accent, makes the reservation. This develops into a conversation in Russian, and leads to a promise of special menus and seating.
Given Hanson's insinuation that Troika is a good place to encounter known Russian mobsters that the NYPD can't touch, the Agents decide that it would be wise to pay attention to security for the evening's outing. The plan is for Vinnie and Klas to take one of the team's vans and park near the restaurant, while Paul and Wen do the same in the other vehicle. Each pair will bring half of the team's weapons – guns, knives, etc. – just in case. Hamid and Jili's job is to hang back at the hotel and coordinate everyone by phone as needed.
The whole crew spends the rest of the afternoon and early evening memorizing the faces in the FSB files, to improve their odds of recognizing Georgi's men on sight. Then Klas, Paul, Vinnie, and Wen smuggle the weapons out to the vans and drive off to get into position. Meanwhile, Anabel does her best to make sure that she and her three dining companions look convincingly Eastern European; given the street address, her goal is closer to "trashy" than to "classy." Once she's finished dressing her dolls, it's time to get over to Troika. Both stakeout teams see Anabel, Lev, Qoqa, and Zhang step out of their cab and go inside.
Outwardly unprepossessing, Troika looks nicer than expected inside. After looking up Anabel's reservation, the hostess switches to Russian and escorts the four to their table. The restaurant is split in two by a central hallway and bar, and Lev immediately notices that while New York accents spill from the other dining room, the one to which they're shown echoes with the sound of Russian. It soon becomes evident that the bad reviews the group turned up earlier are only accurate if you speak English. The Russian menu is quite respectable, and Qoqa finds the vodka selection genuinely impressive.
Anabel and Qoqa decide that fitting in demands a bit of extravagance, and proceed to order appropriately. Dinner turns into a party that involves much food and drink. After about two hours of this, Lev nudges Qoqa under the table – he's spotted someone! It's one of Georgi's men, in the company of four giggling women who lack the sensible minimum of body fat and clothing, and who look to be perhaps half his age. They're seated too far away for eavesdropping, but are unlikely to be discussing serious gangster business in any event.
Anabel excuses herself to the ladies' room and gets a good look at the man before walking off. In the restroom, she pulls out her mug sheet and identifies one "Mikhail Drugov." She calls Wen to let her know what's up, and then returns to the dining room. Wen informs Paul of the sighting, and then calls Vinnie to pass along the information.
Eventually, the Agents in the restaurant decide to leave, counting on their associates outside to follow Drugov. They pay up, thank the hostess, and hail a taxi out front. To throw off any tails, they stop off a nightclub, where they spend about an hour having more drinks, and then take another cab back to the hotel. As far as Lev and Zhang can tell, nobody is following them.
Klas, Paul, Vinnie, and Wen lurk outside Troika the whole time, waiting for Drugov to emerge. They spot him easily when he and his party girls finally stagger outside to hail a taxi. Both vans tail the cab, which pulls up outside of a large, noisy club with a long queue held at bay by a couple of bulky bouncers behind a velvet rope. Drugov subtly signals one of the doormen, who nods back and immediately lets him in. It isn't obvious whether this is because he's a regular or just more proof that big spenders who bring lots of pretty girls get preferential treatment at expensive nightclubs.
Rather than park and try to get into this place, the Agents decide to wait for Drugov to emerge and then resume shadowing him. Paul lucks into a place to stop not far from the front door of the club. Vinnie pulls around the block to a spot where he and Klas can keep an eye on the back exit. After that, it's time to wait some more.
It's well into the wee hours of Tuesday, July 12 when Paul spots Drugov emerge from the club. He has the same girls with him, but they look considerably less sober than before. Paul's ex-cop instincts tell him that at the bare minimum, there's booze and blow involved. Wen calls Vinnie at once and warns him that the mark is on the move again. Drugov's merest gesture has one of the bouncers getting him a cab, and before long, he's on the road with his rolling party. He doesn't seem to be in any state to notice the two vans on his tail.
Drugov's destination is a fairly nice boutique hotel in the middle of Manhattan. Both the cabbie and the hotel doorman receive extravagant tips. It's about 03:30 when Drugov disappears out of sight with his girls.
To be continued . . .