The Company

[dr_kromm]

On April 9, we had Bonnie ("Xiang Wen," a.k.a. "Wu Xie Zhi" and "Dot"), Marc ("Anabel Windsor," a.k.a. "Abigail Wilson" and "Vicky"), and Mike ("Vincenzo Calliente," of many aliases). Torsten ("Qoqa Ramazanov," a.k.a. "Zoya Petrovna Sidorov") was in terra incognita.

Time: Friday, March 1, 2013 (pre-dawn hours).
Place: Florida Everglades.
Last Event: Setting off a tripflare outside the Emerson Tactical Solutions compound.

With shouts and the racket of revving airboats emanating from within the Emerson Tactical Solutions (ETS) compound, everyone agrees that it would be wisest to hide and hope that the tripflare Vinnie set off gets blamed on a gator. Almost everybody dives among the cypress roots and gets neck-deep in the muck. Anabel and Zhang opt to climb the trees instead, aiming to get out of sight behind the Spanish moss. Fortunately, trouble takes its time coming, as the people bringing it have to grab their kit and open gates. This gives the Agents time to smear their faces with gunk or shinny a little higher.

Before long, several airboats fan out through the area. None of the lurking Agents can see well enough to count them, but there are at least five or six. Each has a crew of three: pilot, thermograph operator, and machine-gunner. At the same time, a truck pulls out of the compound and onto the road to the highway, where its heavily armed crew shine powerful spotlights into the ditches.

The searchers make not one but three long sweeps through the area. The Agents opt not to engage in any heroics. Vinnie and Qoqa take advantage of the moments between passes to make their way to better concealment, but otherwise the priority is simply to keep heads down! Fortunately, this seems to work. The searchers eventually abandon their hunt, perhaps convinced that the flare malfunctioned or was triggered by wildlife. Whatever the reason, they ultimately return to their compound.

As soon as the coast looks clear, the Agents retreat. Moving as quickly as they can while staying out of sight and trying not to make a sound, they slog toward the highway. It's around 9:30 by the time they get there. Approaching their vehicles cautiously, they find them where they hid them, with no evidence of lurking enemies or tampering. Without further ado, the tired, soggy trekkers pile into the SUVs and hit the road for Miami.

The Agents reach their hotel at about 11:30. Taking great pains not to look too wet and filthy, they make their way to their rooms to shower off and change. While everyone grabs a bite to eat, Jili does a little digging on where she might find land ownership records for private property in the Everglades. While there are several possibilities, it looks as if Tallahassee would be the best bet. Of course, that's a seven- to 11-hour drive, depending on traffic.

Everyone agrees that it would be best to check in with Chaturvedi before taking a major side-trip out of Miami. Unfortunately, there's no answer at his number – which isn't surprising, given that he's busy rushing the Agents' next set of false identities. Jili points out that the state offices in Tallahassee aren't open over the weekend anyway, so the gang might as well stay put for a couple of days. That should give the group plenty of time to check in with their handler.

Over the next two days, the Agents just play tourist in the Miami area. This gives Zhang time to recover completely from the injuries he sustained in Kigali. It also lets Anabel catch up on her bikini-buying, and allows Wen an opportunity to fill her face with junk food. It's around midday on Sunday, March 3 when Anabel finally gets through to Chaturvedi on the phone.

Anabel reports in on what the group has done and discovered since arriving in Miami. At first, Chaturvedi mostly listens, speaking only to express surprise at the fact that his team's latest enemies are so . . . military in character, going so far as to live on what amounts to a base. After hearing Anabel's description of their compound and its security, he remarks that these men must have remarkably good funding. And when Anabel summarizes the conversations the team overheard and the search tactics they witnessed, he comments that while this bunch might know about the Company (being in Kigali strongly suggests as much), it's obvious that they don't fully appreciate the Agents' skill sets.

With the status report out of the way, Anabel asks Chaturvedi what the Company would have her team do next, given the situation. She makes a point of mentioning that direct action is an option, but that Lev – speaking as the group's tactical expert – advises against it. Anabel feels that it would be best to dig through state records in Tallahassee to see whether whoever set up the ETS compound left a money trail. Chaturvedi supports her decision, and says that he'll arrange hotel rooms for the Agents through suitable cutouts. He also promises to send some cash via two-day courier, in a packet labeled "DOCUMENTS."

The Agents spend the rest of the afternoon making preparations for their road trip to Tallahassee. They set out after dark with the aim of arriving first thing Monday morning. Vinnie and Klas take turns driving the lead vehicle, while Paul and Lev spell each other behind the wheel of the other SUV. All four drivers exercise extra caution – in case the police are looking for their stolen rides or borrowed plates, or the group's enemies have caught wind of their next move – but the vigilance proves unnecessary. The team pulls into Tallahassee just after sunrise on March 4.

The Agents grab a bite to eat, and then Anabel saunters into the archives while the rest of the crew fans out to watch the area. It proves to be a rather boring day for everyone – including Anabel, truth be told. Poring over records isn't exactly exciting . . .

Anabel discovers that the swampy bit of land on which with Emerson Tactical Solutions compound is built has been owned by one Sanderson Emerson of Tampa since 1927. That seems unlikely, but she cannot find a more recent record of ownership. Digging around more, she learns that Sanderson Emerson also owns a private residence in Tampa. She notes the address and, with a quick Google search, finds that the home is a big old mansion on the edge of town.

Not convinced that either property has been owned by the same person for the past 86 years, Anabel digs deeper. She eventually finds out that the land that the ETS compound stands on was auctioned off after the Emerson estate fell delinquent on taxes. The auction date was April 27, 2010 (when the Agents were in Belfast monitoring Paul). The Emersion mansion in Tampa was auctioned off on the same day, albeit separately. This spurs Anabel to take a second crack at turning up records showing that either property changed ownership in 2010, but again she finds nothing – a situation that strikes her as fishy and suggestive of bribes or tampering.

By the time Anabel has all that worked out, the building is about to close. She strolls out and rejoins her associates, who are by now quite sick of drinking coffee and walking around "scenic" Tallahassee. After returning to the hotel, Anabel fills in the others on what she learned. Everyone agrees that it would be best to stick around for another day so that she can dig further into the land auctions to see who bought the Emerson properties.

On Tuesday morning, Anabel goes back to work while the others keep an eye out for trouble. She soon learns that the land on which the ETS compound stands was bought for $11 million by a shell company with a federal registration number. She texts Jili the number and asks her to research it online, and then continues her own poking around. Her efforts reveal that the Emerson mansion in Tampa was bought for $3.5 million by one John Talbot Deringer, LtCol (retd.), USMC. Aware that $3.5 million is above the pay grade of such an officer, Anabel does a Google search to see whether Deringer is from a wealthy background, won a lottery, or received a lawsuit settlement, but finds only a message-board post, dated January 14, 2010, in which a Marine in Iraq describes Deringer as a "hardass." Smelling another irregularity, Anabel checks on what else Deringer owns in Florida, but comes up empty.

Anabel decides to follow the lead of the shell company instead. She calls Jili and asks whether the registration number unlocked any secrets. The only information Jili has is that the company was chartered on February 24, 2010 and dissolved a mere two months later, on April 28, 2010. Jili notes that the information wasn't easy to come by. In her words, "Somebody tried to bury this." Anabel checks whether that company owns other property in Florida, but once again turns up nothing.

That evening, Anabel rejoins her friends and they retire to their hotel to discuss her findings. On hearing what she and Jili unearthed, Paul and Zhang feel compelled to speak up as ex-cops. Both men point out that in their experience, this pattern of property ownership only shows up in two situations. One is when the mob is trying to launder money with the assistance of corrupt officials – a practice that Vinnie says he saw happen several times in his former career. The other is when a national intelligence or security service is pulling strings for a black operation.

Analyzing the situation further, the Agents conclude that if Deringer is actually associated with this affair, then using his real name is the kind of mistake that suggests "mob" rather than "spooks." However, the amount of money involved – and Deringer's former occupation – suggest that someone might have funded a black operation skillfully enough but then failed to keep Deringer from using his "consulting fee" to purchase a nice old mansion when he had the chance. All of which hints at the possibility of a deeply buried black budget finding its way to private operators who aren't subject to much or any government oversight.