Page 28 of France Face-Off
She was one to watch.
“Striker?” Lucie’s voice sounded in his ear, startling him.
He’d almost forgotten putting the earbud on that morning. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Are you somewhere you can talk?”.
“No, ma’am,” he said and headed for the elevator. “Let me get to my room where I can speak freely.”
“Good. I have some information about Ms. Sokolov that you might find interesting.”
Striker’s pulse kicked up. “Give me a couple of minutes.”
“I’ll stand by.”
He entered the elevator and, using Alex’s method, punched the button for the fourth floor. Once the elevator opened, he headed for the stairs and climbed to his floor. When he was safely in his room, he closed the door and engaged the lock. “Okay. I’m in my room. Shoot.”
“Boot your laptop,” she ordered.
He crossed to the desk, opened the laptop and waited for the screen to come up. Moments later, an image of a family appeared in front of him. A man, a woman and a little girl with raven-black hair.
He immediately knew the girl was Alex. “Alex’s family,” he said softly.
“That’s right,” Lucie said. “They went by the names Mischa and Pavel Federov and their daughter Anya.”
“Not Alex Sokolov?”
“Not at the time that photo was taken.” Lucie paused. “Their real names were Inna and Petyr Sokolov. Their daughter Alexa probably never really lived with that name. She was very young when they moved to Russia and became the Federovs. You see, Inna and Petyr were CIA sleeper agents embedded in Moscow, working for members of the Russian government and passing secrets to their handlers in the CIA.”
His breath held. “Did Alex know what they did?”
“That, I don’t know,” Lucie said. “She lived with her parents until she was in her mid-twenties, when Inna and Petyr were killed in a house fire. At least, that was how it was reported. The press assumed the entire family perished in the fire, including the couple’s daughter. The fire was so hot that there wasn’t much left of their remains.”
“Alex escaped.” Striker could imagine the horror she’d witnessed.
“And the Russians assumed she’d died along with Mischa and Pavel.”
“Until now,” he said.
“We captured an image of her face when you two were viewing the reception hall videos. Our facial recognition software went to work, going through stored video images from all over the world. We found clips stored on the CIA’s database. Apparently, the CIA has had sightings of her over the past two years. They want to bring her in for questioning about her parents’ deaths, but every time they get close, she disappears. The night her parents were killed, the Federovs were supposed to meet with one of their handlers to hand over something important.”
“The CIA told you that?” Striker asked.
Lucie chuckled. “Let’s just say I have ways to gather information. I suspect Alexa got out of the house and could have whatever her parents were supposed to pass to the CIA. Thus, their interest in bringing her in for questioning.”
Striker stiffened. “Someone broke into her room last night. Was it the CIA?”
“No, but there are agents at the Energy Summit watching. The night the Sokolovs were killed, they’d contacted their handler, stating they had information they needed to pass to the director of the CIA. The Sokolovs insisted on meeting in person to hand it over. They never made their scheduled drop.”
“All Alex said was her parents were deceased,” Striker said. Then again, why would she tell a complete stranger her parents had died in a house fire or were possibly murdered for information they were supposed to pass to the CIA?
“The news report only indicated they’d perished in a house fire. Considering they didn’t make their drop, I’d bet it was more than that with the typical Russian cover-up,” Lucie said. “There’s something else you should know concerning Alexa.”
Striker tensed.
“The CIA isn’t sure, but they think Anya might be the person responsible for the deaths of a number of men who’ve been linked to a team of mercenaries who were in Moscow the night her parents died. She might also be linked to the death of a member of the Russian government and an informant for the CIA. The Sokolovs worked with him. The CIA thinks that guy was a double agent, working both camps. He might have been the one who exposed the Sokolovs.”
A mercenary team, a house fire and assassinations. Daniel shook his head. “It fits. She has some self-defense skills not usually taught in public schools.”
