Fanis the Bodyguard Episode 3 Russian Heroes

Kera is an international Chinese art dealer that lives in London.  She is fluent in Mandarin, Greek  and English having been born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.  Her devotion to her job made her grow apart from many friends and as she rose through the ranks, she found herself exposed with not too many people she could trust.  This caused her to call on her cousin Fanis, who she had to get militarily trained, to be her bodyguard.  At this point, Kera didn’t let anyone near her without Fanis present. 

                Fanis, like Kera, was born to two parents of Greek descent.  Due to this, he was fluent in Greek but his love of travelling and interest in other cultures led him to become fluent in Spanish, Russian, Italian, Greek and English.  None of this really helped him with helping Kera with her work because she met with far Asians and Mandarin was the language of choice.  Fanis wasn’t naïve enough to believe that Kera was just a trader in art.  Why would an art trader need a body guard?  He had already been bribed a substantial amount of money to turn against Kera.  He had also had to kill for her.  He was willfully ignorant and told Kera to keep him in the dark.  Kera was three years younger than he and he looked at her as a little sister that he never had.  That was the origin of how protective he was over her and why the current line of work fit right in.  There was no amount of money to make him turn on her. 

                Kera got off a phone call in which she was speaking in Mandarin.  She said to Fanis, “Pack your things, we got to go.”

                Fanis was used to this so said, “Where are we going?”

                “Dubai”

                “Interesting”

                They got on the plane and Kera said, “Fanis, this isn’t going to be like the other trade deals?”

                Fanis looked at her and said suspiciously, “Okay…”

                “You’re going to have to do the negotiation”

                “What? I know nothing about this shit”

                “We are meeting with devout Muslims.  They won’t do business with a woman.”

                “Why didn’t they send someone else?  You have men working for your organization”

                “They do, but, he got pulled away and we can’t cancel.”

                “Why didn’t they send you to the other place and not him?”

                “Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to.”

                Fanis began to believe that something had happened to the other person.  This made him even more nervous.  He said, “Okay, but I don’t know how I’m going to do this.  Yes you can teach me about whatever artifact that’s being sold but if they ask me questions you didn’t cover, I’m not going to know the answer.”

                “You’re going to be wearing an ear piece.  I’ll be nearby to walk you through it.  You’re going to present me as your servant.”

                “Fine by me” Fanis said with a smile.

                Kera smiled back and said, “Don’t get used to it.”

                There was a long pause on the airplane until Kera broke the silence and said, “Looks like there’s a lot of drama in America now.”

                “How do you mean?”

                “Well Brennan just threw the FBI under the bus.  He said that the FBI has an elaborate vetting process.  They were supposed to vet the information.  Brennan was merely a deliverer of the news, it was the FISA court and the FBI that were supposed to verify it.”

                “Brennan briefed the gang of eight and told Harry Reid to tell the FBI to investigate.  He was the head of the CIA.  You’re telling me that it’s standard procedure that the CIA spreads rumors to top congressional leaders and the FBI before they have any idea if it’s true?  If that’s the case, we’re in more trouble than I thought.”

                “I imagine Comey will turn on Brennan soon.”

                “Lisa Page already did when she testified under oath that she didn’t know that the CIA’s source was the same as the FBI’s.  You forget that Rosenstein already turned on Comey.”

                “Rosenstein is a snake.  First he writes a memo recommending to fire Comey.  Then he says Trump obstructed justice by firing Comey.  Now, he’s back to saying Comey sucks.  Make up your damn mind!”

                They landed in Dubai and Kera showed Fanis a painting he’d be selling.  Fanis looked at the painting and his untrained eye was not too impressed.  When Kera told him the price, Fanis scoffed and shook his head.  He said, “Well I’m not a bullshit artist so you better be on your toes.”

                Kera and Fanis got back to hotel and decompressed.  The meeting was set for the following day.  It was hot in Dubai so they changed into their bathing suits and went to the pool.  While there, Fanis heard people talking in Russian about Jim Comey and America.  He knows he should leave them alone but he can’t help himself.  He greets them in Russian and they seem surprised.  They respond back in Russian, “You have an American accent”

                “I know, I’m an American.”

                “Tell me, why do you Americans always blame everything on Russia?”

                “Because the cold war made it so easy but I agree that you’re not our biggest threat anymore.  That, however, doesn’t mean you’re friends of ours.” Fanis was smiling hoping that would make the content of what he was saying less threatening. 

                “So you’re like Comey, you think Russia rigged the campaign so Trump would win?”

                “No, no no that’s all the FBI, CIA and Britain using Russia as a scapegoat.”

                “We may be friends after all.  What do you believe about Comey?”

                “Comey knew that the Steele information was biased and false when he applied for the FISA.  It’s actually documented that he knew when he renewed it in January 2017.”

                “Why are you so sure about January 2017?”

                “He was personally briefed on it by one of his deputies.  They have the e-mail to him.”

                “What about in October for the first FISA?”

                “He knew Steele was talking to the media and other sources besides Fusion GPS and the FBI.  The Assistant Secretary of State, a woman named Kavalec, sent him a memo about it 10 days before the FISA.”

                “Yes, and one of his chief deputies, Special Agent Laycock, interviewed one of Steele’s Russian sources.  Laycock says that the Russian is intentionally lying to him and tells Comey this”

                “I didn’t hear about this.  It wasn’t in any of the FISA’s”

                “Exactly.  This is the problem, no?”

                “Yes, that would be a very big problem.  I know they left out information, like all the times they said that Steele was a reliable source and they had no derogatory information but you mean they actually did some sort of vetting and interviewed his Russian source and found out that the source was lying?”

                “Yes”

                “How do you know this?”

                “News of America has interest all over the world.  You’ll find that not only Americans know about America.”

                “I’ve been to 40 countries, trust me I know that usually non-Americans know more about America than Americans because our news is so liberal and act as propaganda agents for the Democratic party.”

                “Yes, like our Pravda newspaper when we were communist.  Funny, how things change.”

                Fanis smiled, “Yea, you guys understand the important of capitalism because you know how bad communism was. Americans don’t because they never experienced it and only have liberals who are still telling them how great it can be.”

                “Yes, arrogant Americans, when everyone in the world that had tried something has failed, you can succeed.”

                “I wish I could argue against that.”

                “By the way, Laycock is now the director of intelligence for current director Christopher Wray”

                “May explain why Wray sold us out and turned on Barr saying that ‘spy’ is a dirty word.”

                “Maybe” the Russian said with a smile.

                The conversation ended and Kera and Fanis hung out by the pool a little longer than went up.  They showered and went out for dinner.  At dinner, Kera said, “So what did you talk with those Russians about?”

                “Comey and Spygate.”

                “Ah, you’re really into that aren’t you?”

                “Yea, now that Barr hired a US attorney general, things are in motion for the investigators to be punished for it.”

                “You do know that John Durham, that USAG you’re talking about, has been investigating this for months now right?”

                “No, he was just named”

                “Yea, but IG Harrowitz has been referring him information and things to investigate.  Now that it’s taking shape, they named him USAG because he’s been doing it for a while now.  Now, he has the power to subpoena and prosecute the information they’ve found.”

                “That makes sense.”

                “What specifically were you talking about?”

                “How Comey knew that Steele was an unreliable source before the FISA”

                “You know that the Steele Dossier wasn’t the only information in the FISA”

                Fanis said sarcastically, “Oh right, Comey’s ‘mosaic of information’ and Brennan’s corpus of intelligence’ and just for fun, MeCabe’s ‘articulable facts’ yet they never tell you any other part of that corpus mosaic that’s so articulable”

                “Why do you suppose that is?”

                “Well, Devin Nunes, who’s been all over this, says the other sources are just as bad as Steele.”

                “Do you know what he’s referring to?”

                “Well he talked about this ‘golden file.’ With a Russian source.  I’m thinking that they wiretapped a Russian that knew they were being wire tapped so started saying shit.”

                “Like a disinformation campaign.”

                “Exactly?”

                “Interesting” Kera said mysteriously. 

                The dinner ended and Kera and Fanis went back to the hotel and went to sleep.  The next morning, Fanis was fitted with an ear piece and they tested it to make sure that they could hear each other.  Fanis said, “So are you just going to stay at the hotel.”

                “Yea, I was going to go with you because I don’t trust being alone here but I don’t think I’m going to be any safer when you’re in a meeting and I’m in their territory.”

                “Good idea.”

                “Good luck on your first art deal”

                “Thanks”

                Fanis goes to the meeting and before he’s called in he speaks in Greek pretending it’s to himself but it’s really to Kera.  Kera responds back in English that she can hear him.  A couple of Arabs greet him and bring him to a room. Fanis brings the picture to them and they inspect it.  After inspecting it, they make him an offer.  Kera tells him that it’s too low and explains why. Fanis parrots it back.  The Arabs seem to be contemplating this.

                While Fanis was in the meeting, three Muslims are approaching Kera’s room.  They had seen her at the pool and decided to follow her to her room.  They waited for the man she was with to leave as one hung out in the lobby.  They were surprised that it happened as usually people travelling together stick together.  They see a “Do not disturb” sign on the door but they knock anyway.  When they get no answer, they decide to try a different approach.

                When Kera heard the knock, she ignored it hoping they’d realize the ‘do not disturb’ sign.  She focused on the conversation and coaching Fanis through the meeting but she had a bad feeling about this.  When the knocking stopped, she assumed they noticed the sign.   She’s a little suspicious since cleaning people normally are very in tuned to noticing the signs and not bothering guests that don’t want to be bothered.

                One of the Muslims goes to a floor where the staff is cleaning the rooms.  He follows one into a room and hits her in the back.  He slams her head into the ground knocking her unconscious and takes the universal key card.  He goes back up and meets his two partners outside Kera’s room.  There are other people in the hall so they act nonchalantly hoping that they won’t be suspicious.  They say in English, “Great, you got a new key, I hope these work.” 

                They put the key card in and get the green light.  They push down the door handle and let themselves in.  Kera yells out, “I’m in here.  There’s a ‘do not disturb’ sign on.”

                Fanis and the Arabs are negotiating the piece.  Really they are negotiating with Kera but they don’t know that.  As Fanis is parroting, he heard Kera say, “I’m in here, there’s a ‘do not disturb’ sign!”

                Fanis says, “I’m…”and then stops himself realizing he’s not supposed to repeat that but he was getting used to repeating everything she said.  Suddenly he hears Kera say, “Shit….” And then a scream “HELP!!!!”

                Fanis was 10 minutes away from the hotel.  He grabs the painting and says, “I’m sorry, I don’t have time for this.  If you don’t like my price, I’m leaving”

                “Wait, we’re still…” but Fanis was already out the door in a dead sprint.

               

                10 minutes is a lifetime when you’re alone in a room with people who mean to do you harm.  Kera screams ‘help’ but she is quickly tackled on the bed and mounted with a hand over her mouth.  She squirms but one Muslim pins her arms down while the other sits on her legs.  The one with the hand on her mouth takes out a knife and holds it to her neck.  He says, “If I move my hand, are you going to scream?”

                Kera shakes her head no and he removes his hand.  Kera says in the calmest way possible, “The guy I’m with is going to be back any minute.  It’s not too late to leave.”

                The guy grabs the collar of her shirt and yanks his arms apart ripping her shirt in half.  He grabs her breasts and says, “Then we better be quick.  He scoots himself up so he’s sitting on her slender stomach while the guy sitting on her legs undoes her pants and unzips them.  He pulls her shorts off with her panties while the man on her midsection uses his knife to cut the straps of her bra and pulls it off.  He undoes his own pants and lowers them just enough to expose himself.  He says, “First, I’m going to take you, then my friends here are going to take you.  You’re going to obey.  You won’t fight.  This is our right because we are men and you are an infidel. 

                Kera said, “Fuck you”

                The man smacked her across the face and said, “How dare you disrespect me infidel whore.  It’s your fault for exposing yourself in public yesterday.”

                The Muslim man fell forward and then to the side as a slight sound is heard.  Kera looks down and sees blood on the ground emulating from the man’s head.  She looks up and the Russians who were talking to Fanis the day before stand there.  One is holding a pistol with a silencer attacked.  He says, “You two might want to leave”

                The two Muslims holding down Kera get up and rush out the hotel room.  Kera gets up and rushes the Russian wrapping her arms around the gunmen and squeezing tightly forgetting that she’s naked. 

 

                Fanis can hear everything that’s going on and he is bribing the cab driver to drive faster.  He feels helpless as there doesn’t seem to be much he can do to get to the hotel before something happens.  He doesn’t hear the gun but the silence kills him.  In the back of his mind he thinks that if she was actually being raped, there would be moans of pain but he thinks the worst.  His body tenses and then he hears, “There there little lady, you may want to put some clothes on.”

                “Thank you” says Kera.

 

                Kera let’s go of the man and puts on her shorts and grabs another T-shirt to put on.  She says, “I think I owe you guys a drink.”

                “Where is our friend from yesterday?”

                “He went to get breakfast. I was too tired so he went without me.  I’m obviously regretting that now.” She looked away and back at them, “He should be back any minute.”

                “Well, do you mind if we wait with you.”

                Kera responds incredulously, “After what just happened, I prefer it.”

                A couple minutes later, Fanis walks through the door.  He has to pretend that he didn’t know what happened but he wasn’t a very good actor.  He says, “What’s going on here?”

                The Russians give him a suspicious look but say nothing.  Kera says, “I got attacked and these gentlemen helped me.”

                Fanis sees the dead man on the ground and says, “Is that him?”

                One Russian said, “Yes, that’s one of them but there were three.”

                “Where are the other two?”

                “We let them leave.”

                “What did they do?”

                “Not important, what’s important is that your wife is okay.”

                Fanis and Kera laughed and Fanis said, “She’s my cousin actually”

                “Ah, so you’re single” as he turned to Kera.

                Kera smiled and said coyly, “I didn’t say that.”

                “Are you single?”

                “Yes”

                “Excellent.”

                “Alright!” Fanis said loudly to catch their attention, “thank you for helping her out.  I should have never left her alone but how did you know she was in trouble?”

                The gunmen said, “We noticed them take an interest in her at the pool yesterday.  When they followed you guys back to your room, we followed too.  They walked by you guys as you stopped at your door.  We stayed by the elevator and watched what they did but all they did was go to the stairs.  We decided to keep an eye on them in case they tried something.”

                Fanis didn’t entirely believe this story.  Were they camped out in the hallway?  He didn’t see them when he left.  Then again, he didn’t notice they were followed either.  He said, “Well, please join us tonight for dinner and drinks.  We owe you.”

                “I would like that very much”

                They settled on a time and the Russians left.  Kera looks at the painting and said, “So, you couldn’t finish the deal on your own?”

                Fanis stared angrily at Kera and said, “No, I didn’t”

                Kera nodded her head, “Yea, thanks for coming”

                “I would’ve been too late”

                “Didn’t matter.  Your friends helped me.”

                “Are you okay?”

                “Yes, I am. They got my clothes off but they didn’t penetrate me.”

                “I heard a slap”

                “Yea, they slapped me across the face.  I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of hearing me beg.”

                Kera and Fanis spent most of the day calling the police and reporting what happened.  The hotel gave them another room and arrested the other two Muslims.  The cops then sent a clean up team to take care of the body.  When they were done, Kera and Fanis met up with the Russians for drinks that were desperately needed.  The gunmen’s name they found out was Boris while the other one was named Igor.  Boris said, “So, Kera, are you as interested in how America’s intelligence agencies went after your President.”

                “I am but unlike my cousin, I’m a Democrat”

                “Ah so you defend them?”

                “Not really but it doesn’t mean I like Trump.”

                “So, why do you think there were four FISA’s?”

                Fanis said, “Strzok wanted to read all the e-mails of the transition team and the new president.”

                “But it was on Carter Page.”

                “Yea, FISA’s have a two hop rule.  They can read the e-mails of Carter Page and see who he e-mails.  Then they can see who the people he e-mailed e-mails and then who they contact.  With this degree of separation, you can get the whole campaign.”

                “Ah I see, do you know who Kathleen Kavalec is?” Boris asks

                Fanis said, “Yes, she met with Steele 10 days before the first FISA.  Caught him in a couple lies about how the Russians that gave him the information were being paid and Cohen going to Prague.”

                “Yes, and do you know who the Russian was that Steele used as a source?”

                “Bondarev and Kuligan or something”

                “No, those were the Russians that he pretended hacked the DNC servers and Clinton e-mails.  That’s not a source, that’s who they said Michael Cohen paid to help him.  Obviously it’s all bullshit.”

                “No, I don’t know the source”

                “A man named Surkov”

                “Do you know him?”

                “Oh yes, very high ranking Deputy.  He’s close to Putin.  Your government must know about him considering that they issued sanctions against him.”

                “You’re telling me that Steele was talking to a Russian that we had sanctions on?  Are you sure his name wasn’t Oleg Deripaska?”

                “Yes I’m sure.  You have sanctions on him too but he’s not listed as a source.  He is part of this though.  But it’s in Kavalec’s notes that Surkov was a source.”

                “So not only did they know that Steele wasn’t reliable because of Kavalec’s memo but they knew that the Russians he talked to weren’t reliable either”

                Kera said, “Well I guess that answers what Nunes was talking about when he said the mosaic and corpus was just as bad as the dossier.”

                “Yea seriously” Fanis said

                “One more interesting tidbit about Surkov”

                “Which is?”

                “He wrote a book under a pseudonym where a protagonist bribes journalist to print information they know is false.”

                Fanis’ eyes went wide.  “Holy shit, so this guy wrote a book about manipulating the media and nobody mentions it to the FISA court.” Fanis thinks for a second and said, “Wait, in those text messages by Peter Strzok when he talked about the insurance policy.  He said he was protecting an extremely sensitive source.  I kept thinking it was Steele but what if it was Sarkov?”

                “Well, it could have been the FISA itself” said Kera

                “Which they got with Steele and Sarkov’s ‘information’” using air quotes with his fingers on the last word.”

                Igor said, “What if Steele didn’t write the Dossier?”

                Fanis said, “Well we know that most of it was written by Glenn Simpson because it matches an article he wrote in the Wall Street Journal in 2007.  He just recycled the story.”

                Kera said, “Who cares who wrote it.”

                Fanis looked at her and said, “The FBI swore to a FISA court that Steele wrote it and that he’s credible because they used him before and was an established confidential informant.  If he didn’t write it, then they just name dropped to get the information through the court.  You don’t get credibility by proxy.”

                Igor said, “Why don’t you think he wrote it?”

                Fanis said, “Steele told Kavalec that Cohen went to Prague but eight days later part of the Dossier said that they didn’t know where the meeting was.  How did Steele forget eight days later?  Either his memory sucks or he didn’t write it.”

                All four people were taking shots of vodka and having fun.  The night proceeded without incident and at the end of the night, Kera turned to Fanis and said in Greek, “I’m going to have to thank Boris personally for saving my life today.”

                Fanis sighed and said, “Do you really want to be anywhere without me again?”

                “No, you’ll be in the hotel.”

                “How do I know you’re okay?”

                “Because you can’t rape the willing.”

                Fanis rolled his eyes at the bluntness.  He took a deep breath and says, “What if he wants to kill you?”

                “Why would he want to do that?”

                “The same reason others have tried to kill you.”

                “I can’t live my life in fear.  This is an educated risk.  I doubt he sent people to rape me, killed one, just so he could kill me.  Besides, he could have just killed me while we were waiting for you.”

                “You seem to want to remind me how I failed you today.”

                “You can’t be with me all the time.  Like I said, I need a life. I’m just focusing on what happened not what could have happened.”

                “Are you really looking for my permission?”

                “No, I’m giving you the courtesy of letting you know.”

                “Then I can’t stop you.  You’re an adult, do what you got to do.”

                “I’m going to text you the room number.  If you don’t hear from me in 15 minutes, come to the room.”

                “So you are a little worried”

                “Yes I am, it’s a little suspicious that he knew I was in trouble and came in just in time.  He knew what room I was in.  I didn’t notice anyone following us.”

                “Me neither”

                They went back to the hotel and Kera went to Boris’ room.  She texted the room number to Fanis and made sure Boris knew about it.  It took 12 minutes before Fanis got a second text that she was on her way up.  Kera came into the room and lied on her bed.  Fanis pretended to be asleep and Kera said sarcastically, “Yea, like you went to sleep knowing I was in there.”

                “I could have after you told me you were on your way up.”

                “Doubtful, you’re too paranoid for that.”

                “You’re right, but now that you’re here, I’d like to sleep.”

                “Good night” Kera said with a smile

                “Good night”

                The next day Kera and Fanis went back to London with the painting.  The buyers were a little suspicious at the abruptness the meeting ended and were a little insulted so they said they weren’t going to go back to the table.  Kera knew there would be more buyers so didn’t give it much of a second thought.