Moscow, Russia

Emlin Fallen Medusa stepped off the Gulfstream G550, she made her way down the steps into the heavy and humid air of September outside the hangar of Sheremetyevo-2 Airport. Glancing over to the worn gray tarmac. She observed the old Soviet planes that were lined up on it. She hadn't been back here in a while.

To everyone outside the magic circle of GRU, and SVR operatives she wasn't Valentina Petrov a suspected sparrow of the Russian intelligence service,but Emlin Fallen Medusa an free-lance assassin working for an assassin organization. Parked across from The hangar was a black Aurus limousine, General Mikhail Grigorevich Sokolov Head of GRU counterIntelligence stood outside.

"Welcome back Miss Petrov, The Russian President requested your skills for an immediate problem that needs to be handled," General Sokolov stated in his native Russian accent.

She walked over to the limousine, she'd caught a quick glance at his file in his hand that he was holding and says. "General Sokolov, You don't know that I don't go by Valentina Petrov anymore. What's this immediately problem that the Russian president and you want to handle?"

They slid into the back as the chauffeur closed the door behind them. He handed her the file and said. "Our covert wiretapping Operation into the United States Embassy in Kiev and Moscow has been a success. From that we have learned that the CIA has an off the book black box program code-named Night drop.But that's not the problem."

She flipped open the file looking at the photograph of Eric the Red Donovan and studied the file. Yes, she knew all about Red and what he was capable of doing. "What does he have to do with Ukraine?"

"Our asset inside the CIA believe that President Roberts is going to assassinate our President," General Sokolov told her, as the chauffeur climbed into the driver-side and closed the door behind himself

She closed the file tossing it on the seat removing her dark shaded sunglasses and peered out the window. They drove the narrow streets passing by old Soviet buildings from the past and present. In a way she was still a sparrow, but now also assassin.

"That could be a problem General Sokolov, I tried to scrub him back in Oslo but couldn't," She remarked.

"Miss Petrov, I hope that won't be a a problem , because President Putin doesn't like to be disappointed," General Sokolov told her.

"He's no ordinary assassin I assure you General Solokov, He's a deep cover assassin and very efficient," She stated.

"Then I suggest you use your skills to seduce him. Lower him into a hotel room and get him drugged," General Sokolov remarked.

They arrived at The GRU's hideous, grey concrete headquarters on the outskirts of Moscow. The chauffeur stepped out, walking over to the door and opened it for them. They climbed out while the Chauffeur closed the door behind them. They made their way in through the doors into the dark, lit corridor and headed over to the elevator. They rode up to the top floor of the building and emerged. They strode down the hallway that housed the priced offices of The GRU Generals. They followed the corridor until they reached his office.

He grabbed the doorknob and opened the door to his office. They walked into an all Marble with white stucco and high windows room with a massive writing desk in the middle. He made his way over to his desk and sat down behind it.

Her eyes immediately darted over to a file on the desk: The name Read Alexander Ivanovich Datysuk. "Who's Alexander Datysuk?" She inquired in her Russian accent.

"He's a Russian, Ukrainian back room Powerbroker in the Russian, Ukrainian delegation and owns a soccer team. He's Also Avery Jennings asset," General Sokolov replied.

"The Station chief from the United States embassy in Kiev," She asked in a curious tone.

"Yes. the Russian president believes that Alexsander Datysuk is a threat to his presidency and to Russia," he explained to her before he pressed on. " You just worry about Red, let us worry about Datsyuk."

She nodded in agreement with General Sokolov, still pondering how Datsyuk could be a threat to the Russian president and Russia. She remembered reading an article earlier in the Moscow paper about the Russian, Ukrainian delegation meeting in Kiev on her flight to here. She had seduced many oligarchs over the years for Russian intelligence services, and learned their secrets about how they built their empires. She'd combined both of her skills as a sparrow and assassin to make her the best ever.

With the sanctions and ruthless crackdowns oppositions here, she had decided to go work for an assassin organization, although she still was seductress for the Russian intelligence service, she did some assignments for them when they requested her for certain ones. She snatched up the file on Datsyuk,flipped it open and studied it before tossing back onto the desk.

"You think Datsyuk is planning a coup to take over the Kremlin? Or a military coup," She inquired walking out of his office.

"No,I don't believe that at all," he said, rising from where he was sitting. The thought had never occurred to him that Datsyuk was capable of that. But then nothing was impossible if you had billions of money and influence.

She rode the elevator to the corridor and emerged out the doors. Snatching up her sniper rifle case, she headed over to one of the vehicles in the parking lot, and spotted the keys still in the ignition. She opened the trunk, tossing her Hardigg storm case in and closed it. She slid into the driver-side, closing the door behind herself,and sped out of the parking on her way to one of the GR safe houses. She needed to formulate a plan to lure Red into a hotel room. She knew that if they compromise Red they could recruit him as an asset for them.

Sokolov rubbed his chin, as he started wonder how Bychkov was doing in interrogating the seasoned covert station head. The key was locating the briefcase. The one thing he was sure of was that Datsyuk had no intention of letting him or the Russian president get the briefcase. Luckily, he had one of his agents plant a bug in the United States Embassy in Kiev, where he'd learned about the Covert station head asset.

Still, he wouldn't mind having an asset inside Night drop,it would be a huge success to the Russian intelligence service and the Kremlin. The chance of getting Red compromise was slim and dicey, after all he was Night drop best kept secret but not anymore that he was sure of. They would finally have the upper here. The only problem now was Datsyuk and the seasoned spymaster, one of them, had to know where the briefcase was?

He rose up from his desk as he grabbed the Oligarch file from it and flipped it open as he glanced at all the intel in. There to be something here maybe that would shine a light that could tell where the oligarch might have gone. His eyes narrowed on a name in the file. He froze a second seeing it. The name read: Roald Ivanovich Popov, ex KGB and GRU officer black operator.

There were too many coincidences here,he thought to himself. The Russian president and the Defense Ministry of The Russian Federation didn't like them at all. Especially when it was a seasoned spymaster, Russian Ukrainian oligarch and ex KGB and GU officer working together. That wasn't good at all  So what was Datsyuk really up to? That was the question on his mind right now. He strode back to his desk, pulled the bottom drawer, grabbing the bottle of vodka and a shot glass.

He poured himself some into the shot glass as he took a sip, savoring the taste as it burned down his throat and chilled his nerves. He couldn't be Popov would betray the Russian intelligence services, his motherland and the Russian president to what- work with Russian, Ukrainian oligarch. His agents had searched the Datsyuk mansion looking for him and never found him. It was like he was a ghost or knew that they were coming?