“Good heavens no,” Boxers mocked.
“You know,” Irene said, “I think it speaks volumes that my cell phone has not been going crazy with reports of the kidnapping. Especially given that the White House knows.”
“What are you suggesting?” Jonathan asked.
“I’m suggesting nothing,” Irene said. “I’m merely observing. And at this point, my observations are leading me to believe that Scorpion is correct. It may well be too early to involve official Washington in any of this.”
Yelena’s face became a mask of disbelief. “But what about my family?”
“We’ll get them back for you,” Jonathan said.
“There’s the words I’ve been dreading,” Boxers grumbled.
“How?” Yelena and others asked in unison.
Jonathan smiled as he looked at Venice. “Let me get back to you on the specifics,” he said. “After we do a little research.”
Venice groaned. When Jonathan said we he actually meant she.
Venice held up a finger, as if to point to the lightbulb that had appeared over her head. She looked to Irene. “Do you remember that Yelena’s group had a sleeper cell in Canada?” she asked.
Irene scowled, scanning her memory. Then she saw the same lightbulb. “Toronto?”
“Ottawa. Yelena? Mrs. Darmond? Does this ring any bells?”
The First Lady’s eyes grew large, as if she were considering a new detail for the first time. “Yes,” she said. “Back then, it was easy to be anti-American if you were from Canada.”
“Is that where this Dmitri guy comes from?” Jonathan asked.
“No,” Yelena said. “But it would not be unreasonable for him to know about it. Personally, I have no idea if that cell even exists anymore.”
“Which means that you have no idea that it went away, either,” Boxers observed.
Yelena conceded the point with a combined shrug and nod.
Venice stood abruptly, startling Jonathan. “You all stay here,” she said. “It shouldn’t take more than an hour to decide if we have a reliable lead or if we’re dead in the water.”
“What does that mean?” Jonathan asked.
Venice’s eyes flashed. “It means that I’m going to go do what I do best.”
They all watched as Venice left the room. When she was gone, Jonathan said to the group, “More times than not, it’s worth waiting around for the answer.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
It actually took Venice less than thirty minutes, but in that time, Jonathan had managed to fall asleep. The Lagavulin had a part in that, but so did the absence of sleep in the past thirty-six hours.
“I’ve got it!” Venice announced, blasting into the office without warning. “Leonard Shaw,” she said. “Does that name mean anything to you?” She didn’t address the question to anyone in particular, but Jonathan assumed it was for Yelena.
No one said anything.
“Alexei Petrov,” Venice said, and Yelena’s face lit up.
“You know him,” Jonathan said, observing the obvious.
“Alexei,” she said. “Yes, he was a sweet boy. What does that have to do with Leonard… who?”
“Shaw,” Venice said. “Leonard Shaw. He prefers to go by Len. That’s Petrov’s new name. He’s a Canadian now.”
More recognition on Yelena’s features. “He was a Canadian then.” She chuckled at something that passed through her mind. “A socialist to his soul, he never fully understood what to do with his feelings. He has changed his name?”
“So it seems,” Venice said. “Quite some time ago.”
Jonathan raised his hand, partly to poke fun, but mostly to give Venice a chance to shine. “Dare we ask how you determined this?” he asked. Not everyone understood how thoroughly she terrorized electrons with her computer skills, and he thought a showcase was important for her credibility.
Venice explained. “After I scanned through the various drawings we pulled off the data retrieved from Banks, I briefly scanned what you sent me from Vasily and Pyotr. I remembered a reference to Ottawa, which didn’t mean anything to me until David mentioned an international connection. I just worked backward until I found an e-mail about a visit to go see Len Shaw.”
As she paused for a breath, Jonathan said, “This is the part that I always like. Wait till you see how she connected the dots.” He said this in full confidence, having no idea how she in fact connected the dots.
Venice continued, “I matched Len Shaw with Ottawa, and of course that didn’t mean anything to me. So then I threw in the list of names from Mrs. Darmond’s participation with the FBI way back when, and I found a record that showed that Alexei Petrov had changed his name to Len Shaw.”
She stopped, clearly assuming that she’d explained everything. Recognizing the blank stares for what they were, she said, “Come on, how could that be a coincidence? I looked him up, and I found that he’s become quite the real estate investor.”
“Investor?” Irene prompted.
“Investor,” Venice confirmed. “He’s assembled quite a few properties over the years, all of them in the greater Ottawa area.”
“Relevance?” Jonathan said.
“International,” Venice said. “I don’t know why, but I guess I assume that if they’re going to take high-profile hostages, they’re going to stay contiguous to the United States. I didn’t find any Mexican references.”
Thank God for that, Jonathan didn’t say. He’d spent enough time south of the border, thank you very much.
“How about it, Yelena?” Jonathan asked. “Is this the connection we’re looking for?”
Yelena looked to Irene. “Is Alexei with Dmitri now? I could see that happening.”
“Don’t look at me,” Irene said. “This is Venice’s show. I have no idea where she’s going.”
“Why could you see it happening?” Jonathan asked. He suspected that Venice had already divined all the answers, but sometimes it’s best to absorb other stakeholders into a problem to embrace the obvious on their own.
“You need to remember when we were together,” Yelena said. “We all thought that for the Soviet Union to thrive, the United States had to die. I don’t know to this day if that was true. As it turns out, the Soviet Union is gone and the United States is still here.”
“Congregation say halleluiah and amen,” Boxers said.
Yelena continued as if she hadn’t heard. “Alexei, as I recall, believed that everything the USA did was wrong. Everything. His family had Vietnam deserters living in their home. It was that kind of a house. Right around the time I was arrested, he fled back to Canada, knowing that no one would prosecute him there. I had no idea that he changed his name, though.”
Jonathan asked, “Do you think he is capable of kidnapping?”
“Maybe,” she said. “He was all about loyalty back then. Loyalty and action. If he felt that I betrayed him, maybe he could be moved to kidnap.”
“I don’t want to put too fine a point on this,” Boxers said, “but didn’t you in fact betray him? Didn’t you betray all of your friends when you turned government witness?” He winked at Irene. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
Irene acknowledged his wink with a smirk. For Boxers, there was no greater crime than turning your back on a friend.
Venice brought the conversation back on track. “If it’s even remotely possible that he would participate in such a thing,” she said, “I think that he’s where you all need to focus your attention.”
They all waited for her to answer her own riddle.
When the answer didn’t come in a few seconds, Jonathan primed the pump. “Why is that?” he asked.
“Because one of the properties he owns is an abandoned prison,” she said. A smile bloomed on her face as she took in the shocked looks.