Page 62 of Operation: Silent Angel
She was surprised to find the room was quite ordinary, not fancy at all, as she had expected. The stall doors looked like what was inside every old high school in the country — plain gray metal. The walls were pink, and a large mirror hung over the three sinks that were crowded with the other half-dozen masked guests, though many had their masks raised to touch up their makeup. The large, handicapped stall was vacant. She immediately went into it but stood with the stall door cracked, her gaze trained on the door into the room.
The seconds dragged into minutes, which felt like hours, to Diana before Kira entered. Diana was surprised to see that she wore an identical dress to hers. But she wore a different mask, a gold one with black swirls, and a decorative edging that matched the edging on the gold hat she also wore. Without a word, Kira entered the stall with Diana. Madison had entered, and she followed behind her, also crowding into the handicapped stall. She locked the door.
Kira immediately removed her mask and the hat, handing both to Diana. “Thank you both for your help,” she said with a heavy Russian accent. Her voice was husky.
Diana noticed that Kira Koslov’s features were rigid, and her movements were jerky, her words tight with stress. Diana assumed she had to be scared to death that she’d be caught by the handlers. This was a bold move, defecting to America. She was also at least ten years Diana’s junior. Her eyes were dark brown, the only inconsistency in their physical characteristics. Diana would have to keep her gaze downward so Kira’s handlers wouldn’t notice her different eye color.
“You’re welcome,” Diana whispered. “Good luck to you.”
Kira pulled a tube of lipstick from the small black wristlet that dangled from her left wrist. She handed it to Diana. “Put this on, my signature color.” Then she handed Diana the entire wristlet. She slipped out of her dress. Below, she wore a tight beige girly T-shirt and black pants. Then, Kira removed a few clips and shook her hair loose. Her hair fell to the top of her shoulders. She fingered the ends. “I cut it earlier. It doesn’t look too hacked up, does it?” she asked in a whisper.
“No, it looks fine,” Madison said. She took the dress and balled it up. She shoved it into a black trash bag that she’d place in the trash bin. The plan was for Madison to escort her through what should be the nearly vacant back hallway and out into the parking garage, where Mac waited with a car for both Kira and her husband, Anatoly.
Through comms, stuck in both Madison and Diana’s right ears, they heard Cooper’s voice. “Hold position, Xena,” he said. “Don’t bring the package out yet. One of the boys is hanging in the back hallway.”
Madison relayed this snag to Kira, but assured her they would get her out. “I’ll send Diana out to distract him and then proceed,” Madison replied. She turned to Diana. “When you leave the bathroom, go up to the railing and look over it into the courtyard. Follow it all the way around, over by the shops, so that guy will follow you. Be sure he sees you before you go back into the ballroom. Inside, go up to the bar to get a drink. The handler should follow you into the ballroom, but stay back while you get the drink. That’ll buy us some time.”
“Okay,” Diana said, adjusting the mask on her face. She exchanged a nod with Kira and then exited the stall.
Outside the restrooms, she made her way over to the railing and looked down into the courtyard below while she listened to more chatter between Madison and Cooper. She wasn’t sure where Cooper was, but he saw her based on the transmissions she heard. She momentarily looked towards the back corner where the man Cooper described stood. His gaze was fixed on her. She glanced away quickly. Then she walked towards the front of thehotel and over towards the shops. She was relieved to see he followed, circling around the back side of the railing.
Diana moved towards the ballroom. It was now clear for Madison to get Kira out, and she heard the communication through the comms that Madison was on the move with Kira. Just as Diana was about to reach the front door of the ballroom, the man caught up to her. Diana heard a male voice speak in what she assumed to be Russian from right behind her. Diana pressed forward, ignoring the man behind her. If she could get inside the room and put some distance between them, he should back off rather than create a scene. Sam had said that was the FSB’s normal and expected behavior.
“Kira!” he barked when Diana hadn’t stopped or turned to face him.
Diana felt a vise grip clamp down on her upper arm. She was suddenly pulled to a stop. She tried to yank her arm free, but he didn’t let go. She wanted to scream, to get the attention of anyone around her, but she knew Madison needed a few more moments to get Kira away. He tugged her back until she collided with him. She heard more words in Russian right in her ear. She felt his hot breath blow across her neck. She smelled the stale cigarettes on his breath. Even though she didn’t understand the language, she understood the tone of voice. The man was furious, and she was frightened. This wasn’t her world. She was a doctor, a healer, not a spy like her husband and those who worked for him.
Then he drew her around until they were face to face. The look in his eyes proved he immediately knew she wasn’t KiraKoslov. The anger she saw in his eyes behind the mask morphed momentarily into fear, then to confusion, followed by determination. He tore the mask from her face to confirm she wasn’t his charge. Then he broke eye contact with her, threw her mask to the floor, and released her. He ran back in the direction of the bathrooms.
“I was found out. He’s on his way back,” Diana reported through comms. She prayed Madison had gotten Kira out and to safety. She picked the mask up from the floor where he’d thrown it. Onlookers stared. Some gasped in shock. Diana forced a smile and made eye contact with a few of them. “I have no idea who he was expecting. For her sake, I hope he doesn’t find her.” And she wasn’t lying. A few of the bystanders smiled uncomfortably and nodded.
She replaced her mask and entered the ballroom as planned and joined the line of people waiting for a bartender, striking up a conversation with the man who took a spot in line behind her. She was relieved that her part in this was concluded, but she knew she could still be targeted after the fact by Kira’s handler. Until Madison or Sam rejoined her, she was to remain in public and, even better, be engaged in conversation with a person or two.
Madison had just sent Kira ahead of her into the hallway that led to the parking garage when Diana’s report came through her comms. She glanced back and saw the man who’d followed Diana rush away from the front entrance to the ballroom. His gaze was on the back hallway where the bathroom door was, and he closed the distance quickly.
Female voices screeched, accompanying shouts of, “Get out of here!” Yes, he’d gone into the ladies’ room.
Madison followed Kira to make sure she made contact with Mac. Hotel security would have to sort out the commotion in the ladies’ room. In the parking garage, though, Mac was nowhere to be found. He was supposed to be parked in one of the handicapped spots beside the door, the car’s engine running.
“Mac, where the hell are you?” Madison demanded. Mac was to be on comms as well, and so far, he’d remained silent.
“Sorry, Xena, a local copper chased me out. I’m up on parking level two, and some jackass is blocking the way. I’ll be back down as soon as I get around him,” Mac replied.
“We’ll come to you,” Madison transmitted. “I’d rather get her tucked safely into the car and out of sight behind the tinted windows than wait. This garage is a one-way clusterfuck.” She pointed to the ramp to the second parking garage level and prompted Kira to mount it.
That was when Kira’s handler burst into the garage after not finding Kira in the ladies’ room. “Kira!” he shouted, followed by a long string of curses in Russian intermingled with threats.
Madison was fluent in Russian, one of four foreign languages she spoke and read. She also knew that for this assignment, Mister Potty-mouth spoke English. “Back off, buddy!” she yelled, keeping herself between him and Kira. “Go!” she told Kira.
Madison then ran to him. Without warning, she suddenly kicked his knee out from under him, knocking him to the cement floor. She followed up with a combination punch and kick that left him winded and stunned by her sudden attack. She rolled him over and secured his hands in zip ties before he’d gotten in a blow in retaliation. Madison didn’t look it, but she could hold her own with most. She held a black belt in karate and was well-versed in other martial arts. Plus, she’d had the element of surprise on her side. “Man secured,” she transmitted.
“I have diplomatic immunity,” the man finally managed to say.
“Tell someone who cares,” Madison replied as she gazed up to see Mac’s face through the windshield of the car that was half-way down the ramp, the car that Kira Koslov was getting into.
“Package number one secure. Change of plans,” Mac broadcast. “I’ll pick package number two up just outside the front doors of the hotel.”
At the front of the hotel, Anatoly Koslov and his FSB partner entered the Green Street Tavern. A drop of intelligence information was to take place from an American asset to Anatoly. Anatoly was an FSB officer who’d had enough, and he had carefully planned the defection to the United States for himself and his wife, who was a scientist he’d once been assigned to protect. Seth Makris was one of the few people Koslov trusted, and when Mac guaranteed him that they could slip their handlers at this ball with Colonel Sam Shepherd’s help, another man he trusted, he believed him.
