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The Company
At our November 19 session, we had Bonnie ("Xiang Wen," a.k.a. "Wu Xie Zhi"), Marc ("Anabel Windsor," a.k.a. "Abigail Wilson"), Martin ("Zhu Zhang," a.k.a. "Harold Lee"), Mike ("Vincenzo Calliente," of many aliases), and Torsten ("Qoqa Ramazanov," a.k.a. "Zoya Petrovna Sidorov"). Stéphane ("Hamid Fassal") had to deal with the hoop-jumping of changing jobs, and couldn't show up.
Time: October 1, 2009 (evening).
Place: Medical safe house chez "Dr. C. Mortimer."
Last Event: Anabel recovering from automobile attack.
By the evening of Thursday, October 1, Anabel is feeling well enough for Sharkmeat (now Anabel, Hamid, Qoqa, Vinnie, Wen, and Zhang) and Röttwalkyr (Ben, JB, Jili, Klas, and Lev) to discuss the next step in the apparently risky process of exchanging files on Russian human-traffickers with Terence West of MI5. Zhang speaks up to say that, as a former law-enforcement officer, he sees two, interconnected problems:
Anabel interrupts to point out that of the groups mentioned, only the mob or the mob's shadier FSB allies would try to kill someone in broad daylight in London. She's confident that this isn't MI5's style and that MI5 wouldn't grab her by posing as Russians in a taxi. This suggests that her abductors might have been FSB officers tracking down gangsters or cleaning up corruption, and thus may know something useful. She takes a moment to send flowers to the hospitalized woman who was in the cab, with a note bearing one of Hamid's many anonymous e-mail addresses.
With that, the conversation returns to how best to meet with West to exchange information. To minimize the physical risks – ranging from threats involving knives and silenced pistols, to assassination attempts with speeding vehicles – the Agents initially consider buying tickets on a flight out of Heathrow and sending one to West. This would get everybody into the secure area of an airport, where surveillance and violence alike would be tricky for gangsters and foreign spies.
Unfortunately, closer analysis makes it clear that this wouldn't be ideal. The security at the airport would work against the group if they tried to grab anybody tailing West, or even follow such people closely. Moreover, even if tailing those watching West went well, there would be no simple way to track them once they left the airport, as they could board a vehicle in any of several lots, grab a rental, or be picked up. That's too many options for the Agents to cover.
Qoqa proposes an alternative. She lived in London for a while and knows that there are run-down industrial areas with few police around. If she wracked her brain and examined a map, she believes that she could come up with a spot that the team could scout out and prepare for the meeting with West. Directing West to such a place at the last moment should at least guarantee that his shadows must follow him into an area that the Agents control. The others agree with Qoqa, and decide to look at a few candidate locations in the morning.
The morning of Friday, October 2, Chaturvedi comes to the door. He has some equipment for Sharkmeat and Röttwalkyr: a "clean" car with important packages from Dieter in the boot. He stays only for long enough to have an espresso. As Chaturvedi is leaving for his taxi, Vinnie requests a second, larger vehicle by afternoon, as both teams – 11 people – need to go set up a meeting spot, and a single small car won't do. Chaturvedi promises to do what he can.
Qoqa and Vinnie unload the car, which contains what look like crates of fruit. The larger of these hold brand-new concealable body-armor vests, specifically fitted to each Agent. The smaller boxes contain a dozen unused Glock 23 pistols, two cruiser-length 12-gauge shotguns, and a whole pile of ammunition. There's nothing heavier, but these items are for self-defense, not fighting a war.
While waiting for Chaturvedi to return with the second vehicle, Vinnie examines the first. He makes sure that it's in good running condition – and maybe just a bit better – while mumbling something about "goddamned rice-burners." Indoors, Klas, Lev, and Wen disassemble and reassemble weapons and load magazines. Wen expresses unhappiness with the lack of a proper rifle, to which Klas responds by bringing out a biathlon rifle. It's hardly a combat weapon, but it's adjustable, accurate, and shoots bullets; Wen adjusts it to her build.
Toward early afternoon, Chaturvedi shows up with a clunky white van. It's rusty and old, but it runs. Vinnie looks over this vehicle as well. It proves to be in surprisingly good shape, despite its outward appearance.
The next order of business is to scout out a suitable meeting place. Anabel, Jili, Qoqa, and Wen – all women of slight to modest build – get into the small car, with Vinnie at the wheel. The other six Agents pile into the van, which Zhang drives. They tour several older industrial areas recommended by Qoqa. After a couple of hours of this, they spot a location that shows signs of recent, unchecked gang activity . . . which suggests proportionally little police presence.
The place is an old factory warehouse. Or it was . . . now it's an iron skeleton supporting two crumbling brick walls, with the end walls and all the interior dividers either absent or crumbling. However, it's big and clear enough to drive vehicles into, and has ample waist- and chest-height cover. It also sports a few square meters of surviving loft space that would make a decent observation post, and that overlooks the only approach: a long, weed- and rubble-strewn drive. The two squads spend the rest of the afternoon taking notes.
The plan for the meeting with West is that all 11 Agents will drive in and stow both vehicles behind cover. JB and Vinnie will stay in the car, ready for pursuit, while Ben, Hamid, and Jili remain in the van. The three Russian-speakers – Anabel, Lev, and Qoqa – will stand out in the open and meet with West, continuing Anabel's "FSB officers" masquerade. Zhang will accompany them as a silent, menacing bodyguard. Wen will occupy the loft to serve as a sniper, with Klas as her spotter.
Once everybody knows his or her place in the plan, the two teams return to the safe house. There's nothing to do now but wait for West to get in touch. The wait isn't long . . . the morning of Saturday, October 3, Hamid gets a brief message from Terence West via anonymous e-mail:
All 11 operators then board their vehicles and drive safely and slowly to the designated meeting spot, taking care not to attract attention that might get them pulled over and found carrying firearms. At the old warehouse, Lev and Vinnie hide the car behind rubble, "camouflaging" it with cardboard crates and other garbage. Wen and Zhang do the same with the van. Hamid and Jili distribute radios with concealable mikes and earpieces. Then everybody gets into position.
From the back of the van, Hamid tells West where the meeting will be. West responds quickly, and indicates that he's fine with that but won't be driving into such an isolated area alone. He warns that he'll be bringing backup. Hamid writes back to say that in the aftermath of the previous meeting, it would be silly if both parties didn't bring backup in addition to files on the Russian mob. West acknowledges this, and says that he's on his way.
It's late afternoon when Wen sees vehicles approaching: two four-door cars, riding low as if to suggest more than one or two passengers. Further back from these, she also spots a white van, which looks like it might be a surveillance vehicle. The cars make their way up the drive toward the warehouse, while the van stays parked back by the street. Wen reports all of this to the others via radio.
Soon, the two cars roll into the open area below, stopping in front of Anabel, Lev, Qoqa, and Zhang. West gets out of the lead vehicle along with three other men, and four more people step out of the rear car. West tells Anabel that his seven friends are hand-picked members of his task force, not random MI5 officers. Anabel doesn't introduce her backup, but does all but admit that she and her colleagues are Russian cops in the U.K. in pursuit of mobsters from her country. West seems fine with this.
Anabel wastes no time. She drags out the big box of evidence: copies of the Company's surveillance recordings, sketches, and notes on the Amsterdam and Paris rings, as well as the potential DNA evidence gathered from Georgi's meeting with Kirill. She hands this to West's people. In return, West gives Anabel a large bag of CDs and DVDs that he says contain copies of all of his information on Grandfather and the U.K. ring.
Meanwhile, Wen sees the white van drive off. She informs the others by radio. Anabel quips to West that she hopes his surveillance team got good audio from the meeting. West seems genuinely startled. He swears that he had nobody watching – and indeed, that managing to get even seven trustworthy people on his squad was difficult enough. Zhang turns away and repeats this over the radio net.
Wen reports back that three black utility vehicles have just pulled up at the end of the drive. Now men are getting out . . . a total of 15 of them. They have AKs of some variety, a few SVDs, and even an RPG-7. They don't look friendly. In fact, they've headed into the rubble and are trying to sneak up on the warehouse.
Anabel dispenses with the illusion that she has no allies hiding nearby and tells West what Wen saw. West blanches and makes it plain that if the approaching men work for the Russians he has been investigating, they aren't coming to talk. He asks one of his people whether he remembered to bring "the artillery." One of the MI5 men opens the boot of the lead car and starts handing out shotguns. However, the British agents have nothing heavier than scatterguns and service pistols.
Lev advises Anabel that there's no way to leave by car without driving past the mob soldiers, while fleeing on foot is risky against people with sniper rifles. He feels that it would be best to get everybody behind hard cover and then hit the approaching men by surprise at ultra-short range, before they can use their heavier weapons. Anabel relates this to West, and adds that her force numbers 11 in all, armed as lightly as the MI5 men. West agrees that a 19 vs. 15 ambush, even with light weapons, is better than being blown up or sniped from afar.
Thus, both the Agents and MI5 men fan out across the warehouse, hiding behind bits of brick, concrete, and iron, and leaving the two MI5 vehicles parked in the open as "bait."
To be continued . . .
Place: Medical safe house chez "Dr. C. Mortimer."
Last Event: Anabel recovering from automobile attack.
By the evening of Thursday, October 1, Anabel is feeling well enough for Sharkmeat (now Anabel, Hamid, Qoqa, Vinnie, Wen, and Zhang) and Röttwalkyr (Ben, JB, Jili, Klas, and Lev) to discuss the next step in the apparently risky process of exchanging files on Russian human-traffickers with Terence West of MI5. Zhang speaks up to say that, as a former law-enforcement officer, he sees two, interconnected problems:
1. Dangerous people tailing West to the next meeting. The ones who nearly killed Anabel, for instance! In Zhang's view, these individuals might be useful information sources in their own right, worth grabbing or following. Zhang favors grabbing. Regardless, they seem to be willing to kill in broad daylight. This makes physical security a huge concern.Vinnie mentions that he spotted enough different groups watching West's meeting with Anabel to support Zhang's theory. By his count, at least three factions were present. Zhang suspects that these were (1) Russian mobsters or their corrupt FSB connections; (2) less-corrupt FSB officers monitoring West's investigations and movements to help track down the previous group; and (3) West's own MI5 backup (or members of some other British service).
2. A leak in West's department. People tailing West on behalf of the criminals that West is investigating implies infiltration or corruption at MI5 – which isn't impossible, given that the FSB inherited the KGB's inroads into Western security services and has known ties to Russian organized crime. This makes information security an equally big concern.
Anabel interrupts to point out that of the groups mentioned, only the mob or the mob's shadier FSB allies would try to kill someone in broad daylight in London. She's confident that this isn't MI5's style and that MI5 wouldn't grab her by posing as Russians in a taxi. This suggests that her abductors might have been FSB officers tracking down gangsters or cleaning up corruption, and thus may know something useful. She takes a moment to send flowers to the hospitalized woman who was in the cab, with a note bearing one of Hamid's many anonymous e-mail addresses.
With that, the conversation returns to how best to meet with West to exchange information. To minimize the physical risks – ranging from threats involving knives and silenced pistols, to assassination attempts with speeding vehicles – the Agents initially consider buying tickets on a flight out of Heathrow and sending one to West. This would get everybody into the secure area of an airport, where surveillance and violence alike would be tricky for gangsters and foreign spies.
Unfortunately, closer analysis makes it clear that this wouldn't be ideal. The security at the airport would work against the group if they tried to grab anybody tailing West, or even follow such people closely. Moreover, even if tailing those watching West went well, there would be no simple way to track them once they left the airport, as they could board a vehicle in any of several lots, grab a rental, or be picked up. That's too many options for the Agents to cover.
Qoqa proposes an alternative. She lived in London for a while and knows that there are run-down industrial areas with few police around. If she wracked her brain and examined a map, she believes that she could come up with a spot that the team could scout out and prepare for the meeting with West. Directing West to such a place at the last moment should at least guarantee that his shadows must follow him into an area that the Agents control. The others agree with Qoqa, and decide to look at a few candidate locations in the morning.
The morning of Friday, October 2, Chaturvedi comes to the door. He has some equipment for Sharkmeat and Röttwalkyr: a "clean" car with important packages from Dieter in the boot. He stays only for long enough to have an espresso. As Chaturvedi is leaving for his taxi, Vinnie requests a second, larger vehicle by afternoon, as both teams – 11 people – need to go set up a meeting spot, and a single small car won't do. Chaturvedi promises to do what he can.
Qoqa and Vinnie unload the car, which contains what look like crates of fruit. The larger of these hold brand-new concealable body-armor vests, specifically fitted to each Agent. The smaller boxes contain a dozen unused Glock 23 pistols, two cruiser-length 12-gauge shotguns, and a whole pile of ammunition. There's nothing heavier, but these items are for self-defense, not fighting a war.
While waiting for Chaturvedi to return with the second vehicle, Vinnie examines the first. He makes sure that it's in good running condition – and maybe just a bit better – while mumbling something about "goddamned rice-burners." Indoors, Klas, Lev, and Wen disassemble and reassemble weapons and load magazines. Wen expresses unhappiness with the lack of a proper rifle, to which Klas responds by bringing out a biathlon rifle. It's hardly a combat weapon, but it's adjustable, accurate, and shoots bullets; Wen adjusts it to her build.
Toward early afternoon, Chaturvedi shows up with a clunky white van. It's rusty and old, but it runs. Vinnie looks over this vehicle as well. It proves to be in surprisingly good shape, despite its outward appearance.
The next order of business is to scout out a suitable meeting place. Anabel, Jili, Qoqa, and Wen – all women of slight to modest build – get into the small car, with Vinnie at the wheel. The other six Agents pile into the van, which Zhang drives. They tour several older industrial areas recommended by Qoqa. After a couple of hours of this, they spot a location that shows signs of recent, unchecked gang activity . . . which suggests proportionally little police presence.
The place is an old factory warehouse. Or it was . . . now it's an iron skeleton supporting two crumbling brick walls, with the end walls and all the interior dividers either absent or crumbling. However, it's big and clear enough to drive vehicles into, and has ample waist- and chest-height cover. It also sports a few square meters of surviving loft space that would make a decent observation post, and that overlooks the only approach: a long, weed- and rubble-strewn drive. The two squads spend the rest of the afternoon taking notes.
The plan for the meeting with West is that all 11 Agents will drive in and stow both vehicles behind cover. JB and Vinnie will stay in the car, ready for pursuit, while Ben, Hamid, and Jili remain in the van. The three Russian-speakers – Anabel, Lev, and Qoqa – will stand out in the open and meet with West, continuing Anabel's "FSB officers" masquerade. Zhang will accompany them as a silent, menacing bodyguard. Wen will occupy the loft to serve as a sniper, with Klas as her spotter.
Once everybody knows his or her place in the plan, the two teams return to the safe house. There's nothing to do now but wait for West to get in touch. The wait isn't long . . . the morning of Saturday, October 3, Hamid gets a brief message from Terence West via anonymous e-mail:
"Got files together. Best that we meet today. Saturday means less official business going on, and thus fewer nosy Parkers."The Agents waste no time. Hamid writes to West and asks him to await e-mail regarding a meeting place. Everybody dons body armor and straps on a pistol. A few people carry extra firepower: Lev has the extra pistol, Vinnie and Zhang pack the cruisers, and Wen lugs Klas' rifle. Anabel quickly alters everybody's appearance – not radically, just enough to make later identification difficult. She spends extra time on her own disguise, though, to make sure that she looks like the woman who met West at the restaurant.
All 11 operators then board their vehicles and drive safely and slowly to the designated meeting spot, taking care not to attract attention that might get them pulled over and found carrying firearms. At the old warehouse, Lev and Vinnie hide the car behind rubble, "camouflaging" it with cardboard crates and other garbage. Wen and Zhang do the same with the van. Hamid and Jili distribute radios with concealable mikes and earpieces. Then everybody gets into position.
From the back of the van, Hamid tells West where the meeting will be. West responds quickly, and indicates that he's fine with that but won't be driving into such an isolated area alone. He warns that he'll be bringing backup. Hamid writes back to say that in the aftermath of the previous meeting, it would be silly if both parties didn't bring backup in addition to files on the Russian mob. West acknowledges this, and says that he's on his way.
It's late afternoon when Wen sees vehicles approaching: two four-door cars, riding low as if to suggest more than one or two passengers. Further back from these, she also spots a white van, which looks like it might be a surveillance vehicle. The cars make their way up the drive toward the warehouse, while the van stays parked back by the street. Wen reports all of this to the others via radio.
Soon, the two cars roll into the open area below, stopping in front of Anabel, Lev, Qoqa, and Zhang. West gets out of the lead vehicle along with three other men, and four more people step out of the rear car. West tells Anabel that his seven friends are hand-picked members of his task force, not random MI5 officers. Anabel doesn't introduce her backup, but does all but admit that she and her colleagues are Russian cops in the U.K. in pursuit of mobsters from her country. West seems fine with this.
Anabel wastes no time. She drags out the big box of evidence: copies of the Company's surveillance recordings, sketches, and notes on the Amsterdam and Paris rings, as well as the potential DNA evidence gathered from Georgi's meeting with Kirill. She hands this to West's people. In return, West gives Anabel a large bag of CDs and DVDs that he says contain copies of all of his information on Grandfather and the U.K. ring.
Meanwhile, Wen sees the white van drive off. She informs the others by radio. Anabel quips to West that she hopes his surveillance team got good audio from the meeting. West seems genuinely startled. He swears that he had nobody watching – and indeed, that managing to get even seven trustworthy people on his squad was difficult enough. Zhang turns away and repeats this over the radio net.
Wen reports back that three black utility vehicles have just pulled up at the end of the drive. Now men are getting out . . . a total of 15 of them. They have AKs of some variety, a few SVDs, and even an RPG-7. They don't look friendly. In fact, they've headed into the rubble and are trying to sneak up on the warehouse.
Anabel dispenses with the illusion that she has no allies hiding nearby and tells West what Wen saw. West blanches and makes it plain that if the approaching men work for the Russians he has been investigating, they aren't coming to talk. He asks one of his people whether he remembered to bring "the artillery." One of the MI5 men opens the boot of the lead car and starts handing out shotguns. However, the British agents have nothing heavier than scatterguns and service pistols.
Lev advises Anabel that there's no way to leave by car without driving past the mob soldiers, while fleeing on foot is risky against people with sniper rifles. He feels that it would be best to get everybody behind hard cover and then hit the approaching men by surprise at ultra-short range, before they can use their heavier weapons. Anabel relates this to West, and adds that her force numbers 11 in all, armed as lightly as the MI5 men. West agrees that a 19 vs. 15 ambush, even with light weapons, is better than being blown up or sniped from afar.
Thus, both the Agents and MI5 men fan out across the warehouse, hiding behind bits of brick, concrete, and iron, and leaving the two MI5 vehicles parked in the open as "bait."
To be continued . . .