"My plane," Kamarov said. "You will be sorry for this."
"Let me give you a piece of advice," Yezhov said.
Kamarov looked at him with pure hatred. His eyes were piggy and red, set back in the folds and creases of his dissipated flesh. Ilya caught a glimpse of the ruthless man who was feared by everyone in Russia.
"You have nothing to say of value to me," Kamarov said. "I will have you fed to my dogs." He looked away, out the window
Yezhov took out his knife and drove it into the top of Kamarov's thigh, right to the bone, careful to miss the femoral artery. Kamarov screamed. Ilya withdrew the knife and wiped it on Kamarov's pants.
"Do I have your attention now?"
"Yes, yes." Kamarov clutched his leg. Dark blood welled up between his fingers.
"My advice to you is this," Ilya said. "You will be questioned. Tell the truth, and you may yet live to think about it. One way or another, we will find out what we want to know. The choice is yours about how painful that questioning may be. Have you heard the value in what I say?"
Yezhov held up the bloody knife. Kamarov looked at him and for the first time showed fear.
"Yes. I have heard you."
Yezhov nodded. "Good."
The rest of the ride was spent in silence, except for Kamarov's moans of pain when the truck hit a patch of rough road.
CHAPTER 34
The mission to Brazil was underway. Stephanie retreated to her computer room and waited for Nick to report in.
She'd been thinking about Selena.
Stephanie's life revolved around her work. She was an introvert, happiest when immersed in the world of her computers. For Stephanie, the powerful Crays at her disposal were more than machines. They were friends, almost human, guides into the infinite layers of secrets hidden away on the computers of allies and enemies.
Stephanie liked to practice her skills by hacking into the files of the world's intelligence agencies. Once she was in, she'd begin looking for information. What exactly she was looking for depended on whether it was related to an assignment or to her personal curiosity.
Today it was curiosity. She was at her console in the computer room, looking for something that might explain Selena's animosity toward the Russians. She felt a little bit guilty about it. It would be easy to misinterpret what she was doing as busybody snooping. It wasn't her intention to snoop, not really. Stephanie was fiercely loyal to Elizabeth and to the Project. She liked Selena a lot, but something was definitely off with her. It might be something that could affect the Project and she was determined to try and find out what it was.
She'd gone through Langley's revolving firewalls and was into the archived records section, searching for anything they might be related to Selena. CIA was certain to have a file on her. Hell, they had reports on everyone connected to the intelligence community. She'd once looked for her own file and was amazed at the details it contained. It had taken her a day or two to get over her indignation, but in the end she couldn't deny that it went with the territory. If you worked for the government, they had a file on you. If you worked in intelligence, that file would be classified and extensive.
Stephanie entered the parameters for her search. Two file references popped up on her screen. She opened the first and skimmed through it. It contained basic health and education history, results of Selena's polygraph tests, evaluations and a record of increasing levels of security clearance. It was standard stuff with nothing unusual. The second file reference led to a section of the archive that was locked away behind a new firewall and the highest security restriction.
Someone went to a lot of trouble to hide this. I wonder why?
After several minutes she was rewarded with the first page of a file about someone called Joseph Connor.
Not Selena, Stephanie thought. She was about to click away when she saw Selena's name midway down the page. She read a few sentences and took a deep breath. She transferred the contents of the file to her own computer, shut down access to Langley and began reading.
A half hour later she sat back in her chair, stunned by what she had discovered.
Joseph Connor was Selena's father. Her father, mother and older brother had died in a car crash when Selena was ten years old. The file revealed that it hadn't been an accident. Joseph Connor had been an agent for the CIA and he'd been murdered by the KGB. Selena's family had been murdered by the Russians.
That wasn't all. The file identified her father as a double agent passing information to Moscow. The file was deliberately vague about whether or not he had been working with the blessings of the seventh floor. The report concluded that he'd been eliminated because the Russians no longer trusted him.
Stephanie sat back in her chair, stunned. If Selena knows about this, it would explain what I'm seeing in her. But how could she have found out? I wonder if Nick knows anything?
Stephanie printed out the file and put it in a manila folder. She had to go to Elizabeth with this. She stood and went upstairs. Elizabeth was in her office, leaning back in her chair with her eyes closed.
She looks tired. Stephanie knocked on the open door.
"Got a minute?"
"Come on in, Steph."
"I've got something you need to look at," Stephanie said. "Have you noticed that Selena seems uncomfortable lately whenever something comes up involving the Russians?"
"Now that you mention it, she did seem a little irritable the other day when we were talking about them."
"I think I know why."
Stephanie handed the folder to Elizabeth.
"What's this?"
"Read it and then we can talk about it."
Stephanie sat down as Elizabeth began reading. After a few minutes, Elizabeth looked up and said, "Where did you find this?"
"Buried in the deepest hole Langley could dig, behind half a dozen layers of security."
"Does Selena know about this?"
"I don't know for sure," Stephanie said, "but if she does it would explain why she's so reactive when the subject of Russia comes up."
"She was fine working with Korov."
"She'd come to know and trust him," Stephanie said. "He was like one of the team, for a while there. And if she does know, maybe she found out after he was killed."
Arkady Korov was a Spetsnaz officer who'd worked for General Vysotsky. He'd been seconded to Elizabeth in an unusual alliance between enemies formed out of mutual necessity. He'd been killed in the field while the team was on a mission to stop an unbalanced general from establishing a fascist police state in America.
"How would she find out about this if it was buried?" Elizabeth asked.
"That's a good question. I think we have to ask her."
"You do realize what this could do to her if she isn't already aware of what's in this file."
"I know," Stephanie said.
"Why would Langley hide this away?"
"The file shows that Selena's father was working for the Russians at the same time he was working for us. What it doesn't show is whether or not he was a traitor. The Russians killed him, so they must have thought he'd betrayed them. That would seem to vindicate him."
"Then why not acknowledge him?" Elizabeth said. "Put it in his record. Put one of those anonymous stars up on the wall at Langley."
"It could be a cover-up," Stephanie said. "Maybe someone screwed up and blew his cover. Someone high up. It wouldn't be the first time Langley got an agent killed because someone made a mistake. Or there could have been a mole at the agency. Someone who told the Russians he was a double."
"Not many people would have known what Connor was doing," Elizabeth said. "It would have to be someone with a lot of authority."