The Orchestration

Chapter Five-2

As the drivers in each of the vehicles replied, acknowledging receipt of his order, he knew he didn’t have to say anything else.

Foot surveillants had departed the vehicles in which they had been riding, and they now took up positions where they could remain unobtrusive, but closely watch the spot where Kostchenko had been seated. From whatever locations they had chosen, they would hopefully be able to follow whoever retrieved whatever the KGB agent had left behind.

Their goal was to get a good visual, physical description of the person, as well as photos and video, and then follow the person to whatever conveyance he would use to exit the area so the person and vehicle could be identified as soon as possible.

Communications between Yoda and all other team members was accomplished through the use of ‘body comms’ that were worn by each team member. The gear was wireless and consisted of a transmitter about the size of a pack of cigarettes, a microphone about the size of a shirt button, and a receiver about the size of the end of a cotton tipped swab which was inserted into an ear canal.

Knowing that the foot and vehicle portions of the surveillance were in place and ready to act, Yoda relaxed. He focused his video camera on the bench where Kostchenko had been seated, but nothing had changed.

A couple of people had been seated on the bench, but neither of them had made any attempt to reach under the bench. A child had climbed up on the bench and stomped back and forth leaving dusty footprints on the seat, but then decided to jump to the ground and move on to pester some pigeons that pecked at a piece of bread, possibly left behind by a well-meaning tourist since local office workers seldom do anything to encourage the presence of the ‘lawn vultures’.

A male’s voice suddenly came through Yoda’s ear piece.

“Possible target. Male Caucasian, 35-40, 5’10-6’1,” 175-185, dark hair, light blue coat, gray shirt, dark blue trousers, black shoes. He walked past the drop site twice, looked toward it both times, and occasionally looked over his right shoulder to check behind himself. He just turned around and is now headed back toward the drop.”

Yoda knew that every member of the team would scan the area for the person who fit the description that had just been broadcast, and it didn’t take any of them long to locate the individual. The mistakes being made by the man as he approached the drop site drew the immediate attention of those who watched.

Yoda focused the camera on the man as soon as the individual approached the bench where Kostchenko had been seated, and it became rather obvious that this was the person they had all been waiting for to show up.

The man tried to appear calm, and except for his darting glances at passers-by, the unidentified target acted out his ruse pretty well. As he assumed the same position the KGB agent had used earlier, the man removed the object left by Kostchenko from beneath the seat and put it in his coat pocket, but remained seated for a few seconds until he convinced himself that his actions had not been witnessed. With a smug look on his face, the man arose from the bench, and quickly walked away from the area in an almost direct route toward his vehicle, which was parked near George Washington University. The surveillance team followed the man without any problems, and watched as he entered a vehicle and drove out of the area.

As soon as the man had entered his vehicle, a description of it was relayed by one of the team to the other members who were still in their vehicles, and it wasn’t difficult for them to take up a pursuit once the target entered the flow of traffic.

Unlike Kostchenko, who was classified as a ‘hard target’, his contact proved to be rather easy to follow as he drove directly to what turned out to be his residence; a small, nondescript house in a residential neighborhood of other small, nondescript houses, all of which appeared, with minor variations and colors, to have come from the same drawing board.

A DMV check of the license plate on the car he drove disclosed that the vehicle was registered to an Albert C. Michaels, and a quick search through a local phone registry indicated that the residence he had just entered was listed in his name, so the team now had a name for its target as it settled in to wait for the man’s next move.

Yoda was pleased with the way the mission had gone so far, and after reviewing in his mind the actions that the man had taken, he wrote one word under the physical description of the man that he had jotted down earlier: overconfident.

After he entered the house, Michaels walked through the living room to the kitchen, and removed the small container he had retrieved at the drop site from his pants pocket. When he opened the tin, he found a key, similar to the kind used to open lockers at transportation hubs, with the number 263 inscribed on it, along with a piece of paper that had ‘Union Station’ written on it. He put the key in his pocket, dropped the container into a cabinet drawer, and set the piece of paper on fire before washing the ashes down the kitchen sink.

He grabbed something to eat from the refrigerator, because he knew he had to wait for a few hours for the avalanche of workers to depart the train station before he retrieved whatever had been left for him in the locker. Even though he didn’t know what he was supposed to pick up, he knew it was what he needed to deliver to Germany to complete his assignment, and even though his role in the overall plan was minor, he was sure of one thing: the world needed a change, and once the plan came to fruition, that would most certainly happen.

His greatest fear was that somehow the plot would be discovered and foiled, but if that were the case, he had the comfort of knowing that it would not be his fault, because he had been very careful, and besides, he knew there was no turning back.