The photographs and names of the two Russian men were moved adjacent to the two Swiss personal accounts and outlined in yellow. Kendall explained that the yellow outline meant the relationship between the two accounts and the Russian men was suspected but not confirmed.
As the NCTC analysts searched for more information regarding the three additional transactions, Harrison focused on the main account.
Irepla Kram.
There was something about the name that caught his attention, particularly the unusual first name.
Irepla.
After staring at it for a while, it dawned on him. He turned to Kendall.
“The account name. It’s a semordnilap.”
“A what?” Kendall asked.
Harrison’s least favorite topic in school was English, but palindromes and semordnilaps had stuck in his mind since ninth grade English.
“A semordnilap is like a palindrome. A palindrome is a word or phrase that’s the same whether it’s spelled forwards or backwards, like racecar or kayak, while a semordnilap is a word that means something different when spelled backwards.”
Harrison pointed to the name on the screen. “What do you get when you spell Irepla Kram backwards?”
Kendall focused on the display, her eyes widening when she made the mental translation.
Mark Alperi.
One of Lonnie Mixell’s aliases.
But then a confused look spread across her face, no doubt created by the same question in Harrison’s mind. What did Mixell have to do with a Russian captain and his submarine, and what were the other three payments for?
“That’s why the last account number looked familiar!” Kendall exclaimed.
She turned to her computer and pulled up one of Futtaim’s files, listing his financial accounts and investments. Among them was an account number beginning with the initials CS.
“CS must mean Credit Suisse,” she said, “and the account number matches the fourth transaction, to the Syrian investment company, which must be a pass-through account for Futtaim.”
Mixell had paid Futtaim and Protek, plus the two Russian government workers.
Kendall called one of the floor supervisors over to explain their discovery, while Harrison pondered the connection. What did Mixell, Kazan, two ordnance supervisors, a Syrian arms dealer, and the assassination of the United Nations ambassador have in common?
One of the supervisors from the second floor descended, stopping in front of the main display, a laser pointer in her hand. Jessica Del Rio was her name, from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which was the lead organization running the NCTC.
“Attention on the floor,” she announced.
When she had everyone’s attention, a dendrite chart appeared on the center display, with the information for each Credit Suisse account posted beside a photograph, along with the man’s name and known aliases. The top level of the chart listed the primary account beside Mixell’s picture. Beneath Mixell, the beneficiaries of the four transactions were listed: Plecas, Futtaim, Bogdanov, and Morozov, with Futtaim’s picture outlined in red, which Kendall explained indicated Futtaim was deceased.
“It looks like Mixell is connected to Kazan,” Del Rio said, “and we need to figure out why and what the other three payments were for. We’re already looking for Mixell, but focus on these other two men as well.” She pointed her laser at Bogdanov and Morozov. “They’re likely traveling under aliases and could be anywhere on the planet by now. Determine their aliases and distribute their pictures to all facial recognition capable networks, highest priority.
“One last item. The money deposited into Mixell’s account came from outside Credit Suisse. Follow the trail backward and identify the financial institution involved, then have a conversation with those folks.”
41
NORFOLK, VIRGINIA
It was 8 a.m. on a cold and drizzly day, eighteen hours after he’d been handed new orders in the drydock in Bremerton, when Captain Murray Wilson stepped into the headquarters of Commander, Submarine Forces. He was greeted immediately by Captain Rick Current, Admiral Andrea’s chief of staff, who escorted him to the admiral’s conference room, where the senior COMSUBFOR staff were already assembling for the morning meeting.
Current introduced the N-heads — Navy captains responsible for specific areas, such as N1 (manpower) and N3 (operations) — and they were joined by Admiral Bill Andrea, who took his seat at the head of the table.
Captain Dwayne Thomas, the COMSUBFOR operations officer, led the brief, explaining the situation: the Navy’s conclusion that USS Pittsburgh had been sunk by Kazan, the background on the Russian submariner’s daughter and the $2.5M payment for her treatment, plus the letter to his wife indicating he was planning something that would occur in about a week.
When the brief concluded, Admiral Andrea took over, directing his comments to Wilson. “As you can see, we need to locate Kazan and potentially neutralize her before her crew executes whatever they’ve got planned. You did an excellent job tracking down Kentucky a few years ago, and we’re looking at a similar effort here. My staff is at your disposal, as are all Atlantic Fleet ASW assets. We’ll have to work through COMSURFLANT and COMAIRLANT, as well as the numbered Fleets, but they’ll be expecting orders from us. Do you have any questions?”
Wilson had quite a few, but figured most would be answered after analyzing Kazan’s projected position and the Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) assets available. The meeting concluded, and Wilson followed Thomas into the operations center, where they examined a large display on the front wall showing the location of all Atlantic Fleet submarines.
Wilson asked Thomas, “Can you pull up all Atlantic Fleet ASW assets?”
“Certainly,” he replied, then relayed the request to the operations center watch officer.
The display updated, adding surface warships and maritime patrol aircraft — submarine hunter versions of Boeing’s 737 jetliner — armed with lightweight torpedoes.
Wilson focused first on the assets that were already at sea. There were five Atlantic Fleet submarines on deployment, although one was in the Persian Gulf with the Truman Carrier Strike Group, both on loan to Pacific Fleet. Four more submarines were underway in the local operating areas, giving Wilson eight submarines that could be immediately repositioned. Another eighteen were in port, most of which could get underway within twenty-four hours; deployment orders had been sent yesterday afternoon to all submarines not in deep maintenance.
The Surface Fleet was in a similar position, with only a portion of its ships at sea. In addition to the Truman CSG in the Persian Gulf, the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, fresh out of the shipyard after repairing the damage received during America’s war with China, was in the middle of a COMPTUEX — a pre-deployment training exercise with its escort ships — just off the East Coast.
The good news was that there were six squadrons of P-8A maritime patrol aircraft available for immediate employment.
Next, Wilson located the SURTASS ships, best described as mobile versions of the fixed SOSUS arrays mounted on the ocean floor, trailing towed arrays over a mile long. But there were only two ships in the Atlantic Ocean.
Wilson then directed the operations center watch officer to populate the display with NATO ASW assets. Unfortunately, Canada had no submarines underway and the British subs at sea were near Great Britain, well behind Kazan and on the wrong side of her most likely direction of travel, assuming she was headed toward the Mediterranean or the U.S. East Coast. There were a few NATO submarines in the Mediterranean Sea, mostly in the eastern sector near Syria, which would come in handy if Kazan was headed their way.