Authors: Dominick Fencer,Baibin Nighthawk
102
"Jago, I’m getting nowhere in Dallas. I’ve been here three days; surveillance camera archives show no trace of Mark Savannah. I haven’t completed the screening of new hires yet, but I would like to come back to Biosketch Technologies Inc. to reconsider all the events," said Skylinep92 to understand if indeed Colonel Reed was keeping her away.
"Anaïs, you’re like a poor little girl jumping up and down till you get what you want. I'll call you as soon as possible, now I’m going to talk to Reed about it. Unfortunately, I can’t pass you on to Reed because he has his phone turned off."
"I have been busting my balls going around in circles, Jago!” replied an angry Anaïs. “Why don’t you come up with some new ideas?"
"I'll call you back, honey." Green closed the communication that was becoming too heated.
"Colonel? Jago here. Anaïs wants to return to headquarters, she’s completed her mission in Dallas, she didn’t find anything for the moment...okay, I’ll tell her, at least we’ll gain a couple of days."
"Anaïs, here I am,” said Jago. “Colonel Reed told me that according to him, before returning here to New Mexico, it would be better if you carried out some checks on the CIA files. Maybe we missed something; it’s not possible that Savannah has evaporated."
"Yes, I agree, it makes sense. I'll try using different search approaches," replied Skylinep92, who had got what she wanted and was now certain that Reed didn’t want her in the H.Q. offices.
"I'll leave tonight by plane. I’ll search Richard’s files for clues that might have been considered insignificant, and also Savannah’s files, although surely the British won’t have given much more information than we already have, talk to you tomorrow night, Jago."
"Whenever you want, I’m all yours."
"All? No thanks, I’ll leave one part to Ellen, the one that is flabby."
"You are really funny! Ho!Ho!Ho! Goodbye, see you tomorrow."
103
The next morning, Anaïs woke up at the Marriott Hotel in Langley and, as often happened to her when she traveled a lot, she needed a moment to remember where she was.
She left the hotel at 7:30 am and headed to CIA headquarters: she had reserved a workstation to examine the archives and she was going to do a thorough search on Richard Reed.
At reception she compiled and signed the request to access the virtual archive, then sat down at a workstation. She knew very well that Colonel Reed would know which files she viewed and what she copied or printed; in fact, the archive was equipped with a sophisticated traceability system.
She began with a search on Mark Savannah: the British had been stingy with information and the Americans had not added anything except the fact that he had directed the joint Anglo-American operation "Uday, who runs fast", and that he had killed the terrorist in Afghanistan with his team, but there was no detail and no report.
The file ended with the profile tab on the British agent that she knew by heart; so she went straight to load the file on Richard Reed.
In 1993, Reed was actually in Afghanistan, he wasn’t yet working for UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), but only for the CIA as a mediator between ISI, the Pakistani intelligence, and the CIA. He was also responsible for a training camp near Kabul, where U.S. agents were trained to deal with guerrilla warfare.
Five years later, he had started collaborating with the UNODC against "Drug Trafficking", while keeping the role of mediator with the ISI, and since then he had consolidated and improved his position within the organization, becoming a member of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs.
Anaïs analyzed and mentally ordered the information she found. Reed seemed to have an impeccable reputation, he fought against the production and processing of opium in Afghanistan, he was a capable mediator and an experienced trainer.
What confirmed that he was in Mogadishu on October 3, 1993 during the battle and the shooting down of the Black Hawks, Anaïs found in two anonymous lines inside the Afghanistan dossier: he had suddenly been called as a mediator during the tensions in Somalia and he had left Afghanistan for Mogadishu on October 2, 1993 and got back to Langley, USA on October 6, 1993.
Anaïs opened the documentation on the Battle of Mogadishu because it was included in Reed’s dossier. There was an account of those days with the reports of the Delta Force, the Night Stalkers, Rangers and Navy SEALS, the extremely detailed description of the two days of clashes with the shooting down of the first Black Hawk, and then of the second one which was sent to recover the crew of the helicopter that had been shot down. But she didn’t find the name of Turner C. Cooper or that of Andrew Davis in any report.
She decided not to proceed further; in fact, carrying out a search directly on either the names or on the death of a U.S. agent on a diplomatic mission to Mogadishu on October 4, 1993, killed by an anti-tank rocket fired by a militiaman, would have alarmed Colonel Reed.
She had already studied the last two years of the dossier on Reed when she began the investigation to track and capture Savannah. Therefore, Anaïs judged, after the three hours spent sitting in front of the screen, that the information was sufficient and she made a copy of everything for future reference.
When she left the workstation, she signed the exit document and headed to the cafeteria for a cup of coffee.
Mark Savannah had told her the truth about Reed being in Mogadishu. However, this had not corroborated the fact that Turner C. Cooper was in the Humvee as an undercover agent on a special mission or that he was Savannah’s father.
Anaïs arrived in the cafeteria and saw a lot of people standing with raised glasses in their hands. She didn’t pay them any particular attention; she bought a cup of coffee at the counter and took it to a table, placing it on top of the documents she had just printed.
After about ten minutes she heard a familiar voice calling to her from behind.
"Anaïs, what a pleasure to see you!”
Anaïs turned her head; it was Mae Robinson, the veteran CIA archivist who had been very close to her when her mother had died. She considered Mae a good friend, even if they rarely saw each other.
“I thought you were in Switzerland,” said Mae. “What brings you here?"
“I'm doing some research, Mae. Nothing special… How are you? I was just about to come and say hello!"
"So I'm really glad to have met you now, you wouldn’t have found me. I'm retiring today and, to be precise, finished working forever exactly one hour ago. I'm celebrating! Come on!! I’ll offer you something. I would have written you tonight, Anaïs, they decided two days ago that it was time for me to retire...you know them, right? But do you happen to need any documents from the paper archive?"
"No, Mae, thanks. You must celebrate! Damn, you're retired, though…how will we operative agents survive without you?"
"Hey! What's that disappointed look?” laughed Mae. “Come on! I no longer have access to the archive, but I can stay for another hour and help you with the new archivist, if that is the problem."
"You’re really great, but...I only trust you... It's okay."
"Ah, when you have that look… What are you looking for, darling?"
"Turner C. Cooper," replied Anaïs, lowering her voice and glancing down.
This time Mae frowned at her when she replied: "I can’t help you, I'm sorry."
Anaïs realized that Mae was lying, she knew her too well.
"Mae, if you know anything, please let me know. It's very important for me."
"You forget who you are, my dear."
"Who am I?" asked Anaïs.
"Walton I. Reed’s preferred special agent. Come on, I'll buy you a drink."
"Mae, I haven’t found anything about Turner on October 3, 1993 in Mogadishu...you know very well that I hate Reed and I would never get you in trouble." Anaïs continued unabated.
"How do you know about Mogadishu? Who’ve you been talking to?"
"I met his son, Barnett."
"Barnett? He was a handsome and sensitive child. What does he do now? Since the day of Turners’ funeral, I haven’t heard anything about him."
"He’s a psychiatrist, Mae."
Mae Robinson looked Anaïs directly in the eyes and said: "You won’t find anything about Turner, they destroyed everything. They erased him from all historical records and from the records of anyone who had anything to do with him. I was his secretary, before they put me in the "dungeons" to be an archivist, by the way, just after his death."
Mae had stopped talking; she had no desire to continue.
"Go on please,” asked Anaïs. “I need to know… it is really important."
"Turner was an undercover agent; we quickly became friends and trusted each other. He was an intelligent and sensitive man, but he was married to that terrifying woman...then came Ludmila. She also was a secret agent; they loved each other very much.
“Ludmila died in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992 while she was trying to reach Turner, who was in command of an operation. After that he was never the same; he survived her by a year. He was killed during the Battle of Mogadishu, an anti-tank rocket hit the Humvee he was traveling in with the commander of the Delta Force, Andrew Davis, but it was definitely not an action of the militia. Turner had told me about some corrupt CIA agents he was investigating. I'm pretty sure that the same agents killed him. He pretended to be in the Army all his life…that was his cover and something he hated. After his death, I was "invited" to become the archivist and to mind my own business. Now nothing remains of Turner here in Langley. That's all I know. Please, I never told you anything."
"Thanks Mae, you’re always a great help. This conversation never happened…And now, we should join your guests, I want to celebrate with you!"
104
As Anaïs was heading to Washington DC airport on her return to Dallas, she put together the two versions of events in Mogadishu given by Mark and Mae Robinson.
Richard Reed, who was involved in drug trafficking and had become the right arm of Uday Bouda, had most likely burned Turner C. Cooper by first warning General Mohamed Farrah Aidid’s men, and then terminating him by blowing up the Humvee with an anti-tank rocket.
Turner’s son, Barnett Cooper aka Mark Savannah, during the operation that led to the killing of the CIA’s most wanted terrorist, Uday Bouda, had discovered years later, in circumstances that still Anaïs didn’t know, a film that confirmed the direct involvement of Richard Reed in the death of Turner C. Cooper.
At this point Anaïs wondered why a special agent, the best in the field of the British secret intelligence service and, moreover, a successful psychiatrist, had killed the Colonel’s son so ineptly, burning himself completely before he could use all the evidence he had gathered to his demonstrate what had really happened.
Anaïs arrived in Dallas in the late afternoon and took the same room at the Ritz-Carlton that she had left a few days before. She took a shower and went out for a walk after having eaten fried chicken and a salad.
When she arrived in front of the Dallas Museum of Art, she decided to call Mark Savannah even though it was now past 10:00 pm.
"Is it too late for you, Savannah? This is Anaïs."
"Hi, it’s not late at all; I was just looking over some figures in my possession on the "Transtem 1.1" project. I had given up hope of you calling…it's been more than two days."
"Do you mind my calling you?" SkylineP92 went on flirting to see if Savannah was happy to hear her or was as unflappable as the first time she had met him.
"It depends on what you have to say to me…if you still want me dead," Mark replied calmly.
"You really have a crappy personality, has anyone ever told you that?" Anaïs said disconsolate, over the phone he seemed a cold and cynical man.
Mark was surprised by the change in her tone and attributed it to the fact that she still hadn’t found anything that would confirm his version, and therefore still didn’t trust him.
"So?" she urged.
"So what? You called me, remember?"
"But do you treat them all like that?"
"Who, Anaïs? What are you talking about?"
"Women. I'm talking about women!"
"You called me to have a conversation about women?"
"Oh my God! Forget it!"
"Please, breathe deeply and start again, avoid losing your patience because we’ve already had one fight and I'd prefer to avoid doing it again, ok?" Mark was tempted to burst out laughing but, of course, he refrained from doing so.
"I’ve been at Langley." Her voice came back with a serious tone. "You were right: there’s nothing about Turner C. Cooper. All the information has been deleted, there’s not a single document left..."
"Then how can you say that I'm right?
"By chance, the living historical memory came to my aid before leaving the CIA and retiring. I have known her very well for many years, but I didn’t know that she was at one time Turner’s secretary: Mae Robinson."
"I've never heard of her. What did she say to you?"
"She confirmed that Turner was undercover, the fact that he died in Mogadishu and that she doesn’t believe at all that it was the militiamen that killed him, she thinks it was those he was investigating. She wasn’t able to say anything else; she had no further details. I checked the archive and Richard Reed was in Mogadishu on October 3, 1993."
"I hope you didn’t search for Turner in the virtual archives since there’s no relationship between Reed and me. You know you leave traces, don't you?"
"Of course I know that, I'm not stupid. What do you take me for? I reviewed your dossier and that of Reed, and I got the other information from Mae,” replied SkylineP92 angrily.
"What are you going to do, Anaïs?"
"I believe your version, even if the situation is so confused and incredible making it hard for me to trust you. Let's meet in the ‘consecrated’ land, Wiley Post Airport, tomorrow at 4:00 pm. We can talk about it in private."
"Okay, I'll be there. See you tomorrow. I'm really glad that I didn’t leave any marks on your face,” said Savannah, who hung up before Anaïs could reply.
It was 5:00 pm in Sofia, but Pavel wasn’t online, so Mark wrote a message on their secure line: "Sniper Degann confirmed Davis’ version about my father, she still doesn’t trust me, but I’m seeing her tomorrow at Wiley. Call me tonight my local time, please. We have to decide what to propose to her."
Meanwhile Anaïs called Green on his cell phone.
"Jago? Hello, how are you?"
"I'm lost without you…where are you?"
"I’m back in Dallas. I went to Langley and reviewed the available files and covered all the details on Richard Reed’s career in order to proceed with the search for clues. I’ll stay here in Dallas a few more days to check out the local medical practices and health care organizations. If I don’t find anything, I'll be back in New Mexico as planned."
"All right, I hope you can find information in Dallas that will lead us to Savannah, sweetheart. See you tomorrow."
Green immediately informed Colonel Reed that Anaïs was at Langley and that if she didn’t find any more clues, she would be returning to Biosketch Technologies Inc.; afterwards he checked the CIA computer system to see which files Anaïs had consulted and since there was nothing suspicious, he called the Colonel to update and reassure him.