Fanis the Bodyguard Episode 33 The FBI Must Go

                Kera and Fanis are in Kera’s flat in London, England.  As they were still Americans, they had been following the impeachment hearings closely and despite votes on motions to adjourn and various speeches, The House was finally voting on whether to impeach Donald Trump.  The vote came in and Kera smiled and turned to her cousin and bodyguard and excitedly exclaimed, “Your president has just been impeached.”

                “The first president in American history to be impeached with no votes by one of the major parties.”

                “Doesn’t matter.  He still was.”

                “Okay, so what?  I think the chances he gets removed from office by the Republican controlled Senate is the same as the odds he wasn’t going to be impeached.”

“So what?  It’s a stain on his presidency.”

“Is it though?  Every time they had an impeachment hearing, President Trump’s approval rating

went up and support for impeachment went down amongst independents.  Swing states all turned against impeachment and fund raising for Donald Trump and the Republicans went through the roof.  Not sure it was as big a stain as you say.”

                “Stop spinning, it’s bad.”

                “I agree that it’s bad but not for the reasons you think.”

                “Why do you think it’s bad then?”

                “It’s now a standard battle tactic.  Before, it was just something that crazy people in New York and California graffitied on walls.  It’s meaningless now and it will be used as a partisan tactic with no hesitation.”

                “Oh come on!  You’re overreacting?”

                “Overreacting?  Obama was the more liberal president we had.  He presided over the slowest economic recovery in American history.  He gave a bunch of cash to Iranians that scream ‘death to America’ every chance they get.  He refused to enforce US law with DACA.  He destroyed our health care system and now we spend over a trillion dollars a year on healthcare that’s getting worse.  I’m not even getting into Fast and Furious and Benghazi.  Biden is on tape threatening the Ukrainians to withhold a billion dollars unless they fire their prosecutor general so even a Ukraine threat was worse for Obama.  Despite all of this, we didn’t even think to impeach Obama and Republicans controlled the house so we could have.”

                “Well, we’ll see what happens in the Senate trial.  Democrat congresswoman Jackie Speier has been calling for McConnell to recues himself because he called it a sham.  It worked for Sessions.”

                “Should Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and every Democrat Senator that made up their minds as well and spoke in favor of impeachment recues themselves too?”

                “No, but that’s different.  They’re not the head of the Senate committee.”

                “It doesn’t matter.  You see the double standard they paint for Republicans and Democrats.  McConnell already told Schumer he’s not getting his witnesses.  I hope he stays firm but I have no faith in Republicans to remain strong.”

                “Well, history has proven them to be pussies.”

                “I can’t even argue that.  Hopefully McConnell learned from Sessions’ mistake.”

                “Democrats may declare a mistrial”
                “Go ahead.  Who cares?  It’s a hoax trial anyway.  They based impeachment on a complete hoax with hearsay evidence.  Even the people he allegedly threatened said they didn’t feel threatened or even know that the aid had been withheld.  They got the money so they thought everything was fine.”

                “Anyway, we got to go.”

                “Where to?”

                “Brussels.”

                “Alright then.”

                They leave the flat and go to the airplane hangar for the short flight to Belgium.  Kera declares, “Lisa Page is really pissed and speaking out because Trump keeps mocking her.”

                “She deserves to be mocked.  She cheated on her husband and got Peter Strzok to as well.  Some say she even fucked McCabe.  I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with sleeping your way to the top but she was already at the top and she was still fucking.”

                “Right?  She’s the bad guy who seduced Peter Strzok.  We can’t blame Strzok for cheating on his wife because Page lured him out of his marital bed.” Kera’s voice was littered with sarcasm and anger.

                “Oh no, Strzok is a piece of shit too.”

                “That’s a little better.  Anyway, she’s blaming the DOJ and FBI for her misfeasance.  She accuses us of politicizing her text messages.”

                “How did we do that?  We just released them to the public.  They are political in nature.  They speak for themselves.  They don’t need any help from anyone to politicize them.  They were also done on FBI phones.  I thought the FBI was supposed to be the smart law enforcement people?  They need to check their vetting process.  How did these two morons get to the highest echelon of the FBI?”

                “Don’t you think that the company you work for should have your back?  That’s why she’s so pissed, she feels betrayed by her former employer.”

                “Oh boo hoo; I actually have a problem with that shit too.  She talks about how it’s her FBI and her DOJ.  No it’s not; it’s ours.  It belongs to the tax payers.  We fund that shit!  It’s her job to investigate counterintelligence matters on our behalf.  Instead, she took our money to have an affair with a co-worker and attack 63 million citizens because they differ on who they want to be president.  Give me a break.”

                “Civic lessons aside; people say ‘my’ when they talk about their employer.”

                “When you work for the government, it’s considered a job of doing service for the country.  That’s what a job in the public sector is; serving people.”

                “People don’t think of that.”

                “Maybe that’s the problem.”

                “She talked about the insurance policy too.”

                “Oh wow, Maddow actually asked her a substantive question.”

                “Yea, see she’s not as bad as you think.”

                “No, she probably is.  She probably just took her answer at face value and didn’t press her.”

                “Actually, that is kind of what she did.  Page told her that it was an analogy to see if they should take investigative steps.  Like, well if he loses, Russia doesn’t matter because he’s not president but maybe they should investigate him anyway just in case he does win; even though it’s unlikely.  She’s the national security apparatus and she needs to withhold confidential information if the president is a Russian agent.  It would be her duty like you said.”

                “Spare me the holier than though moral high ground.  She is not the national security apparatus.  The FBI isn’t in the Constitution.  The president is the national security apparatus as he is the Commander in Chief.  If you keep confidential information from the President, then you are keeping it from the real national security apparatus.  You know what we call that?  A coup.”

                “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

                “These aren’t desperate times.  After three years, everything in the dossier was a lie and Trump is no more a Russian agent that you or me.”

                “They didn’t know that then.”

                “Yes, they did.  August 15 was the insurance policy text.  The IG Report says that on that date, case agent 1, which is probably Steele, wrote a summary to request FISA authority.  That’s when they wanted to get the FISA on Carter Page and thought they had probably cause.  The FISA is the real insurance policy; not some hypothetical idea to open an investigation.”

                “August 15 was two weeks after they opened crossfire hurricane so it wasn’t a hypothetical investigation there was an investigation.”

                “If that’s true, then why would she be talking about an insurance policy when it already happened?  She said in the interview that they were contemplating the possibility but Crossfire Hurricane already started.  You just proved my point that she’s a fucking liar.”

                “Whatever, we’re about to land.”

                Kera and Fanis land in Brussels and the first thing Fanis notices is how clean and crisp the air smells compared to London.  He takes a deep breath and soaks it in.  They check into their hotel and then immediately head out to one thing that the Belgium takes very seriously; beer.  They drink the light beer Belgium is famous for.  Ideally, they would like to have it cold but many countries, including Belgium, don’t serve beer cold.  To the Americans Kera and Fanis, this is unacceptable but given that they still love the beer, they’re left to imagine how much better it would be if it was served cold.

                A man hears them talking and engages them, “Americans?”

                “Yup” Fanis answers

                “You like your president?”

                Kera responds, “I don’t but he does.”

                The man turns to Fanis, “Ah, well we like Trump too.”

                Kera buries her head in her hands and Fanis smiles, “Really?  That’s surprising?”

                “Why?”

                “Because he puts America first.”

                “Why shouldn’t he?  He’s the American president.”

                Again Fanis grinned.  If only liberals could understand that concept.  “You know what?  I agree.”

                “I don’t know how the IG report could say there was no bias.  Why does he believe the FBI had so many lies, forgot to mention so many things and made mistakes?”

                “He didn’t say there was no political bias.  He said there was no documentary evidence of political bias.”

                “I’m not sure I know what that means.  What’s ‘documentary evidence.’”

                “Nobody wrote down on an official or important document that they hate Trump and were going to try to destroy him.  It only existed in text messages and, like you just did, guess that’s why they did what they did.”

                “Yes, it explains their actions.  I’ not too surprised that they didn’t write it down.  That would be pretty stupid.”

                “Well, they did a lot of stupid things.”

                “Well that’s true but this at least they were smart enough to not do that.”

                “Yea, though it would have been funny.”

                The man laughed.  “I saw on your MSNBC that he did say there was no political bias.”

                “Yea, that was Rachel Maddow.  She’s a liar and she lies for the liberals.”

                “It seems like it’s your word against hers.”

                “Nope” Fanis pulls out his phone and plays a clip from IG Horowitz testifying about his report to congress.  When someone asks him if he ruled out political bias, he utters, “I didn’t say that.  I’m unclear what the motivation was.  It’s one of two things: On one hand; gross incompetence/negligence on the other intentionality.”

                “Big words”

                “They are really stupid or they did it on purpose.  ‘Intentionality’ means they were biased, which is why they did it on purpose.”

                “I think it’s the second one.”

                “Me too.”

                They continue to drink and Fanis gets up to go the bathroom.  As he walks in, he realizes that it’s a co-ed bathroom.  There is a girl in one of the stalls and men are pulling themselves up on the walls to sneak a peak.  Fanis shakes his head and walks out of the bathroom.  He’ll just wait till he gets back to the hotel because that scene is way too awkward for him.   Kera is equally concerned about the co-ed bathroom when Fanis tells her.  They finish their drink and go back to the hotel.  As it was late, they go to sleep as they have to be up relatively early for Kera’s meeting.  She is in Belgium to sell a Chinese artifact as she deals in Chinese antiquities internationally. 

                Fanis wakes up early and goes out of the hotel where there a bunch of street vendors selling Belgian waffles.  He grabs two and brings it back to the hotel for himself and Kera.  As he tastes it, he remembers them being a lot better.  He reasons that he didn’t get syrup so that was perhaps the problem but last time he was in Belgium, he didn’t remember needing the syrup.  He thought of syrup on waffles as an American thing.  He keeps Kera’s in the microwave in the hotel and when she wakes up he heats it up and offers it to her.  When Kera takes a bite, she remarks, “It needs syrup.”

                “You know, I thought that too but I mean it’s a Belgian waffle in Belgium.”

                “Where did you get these?”

                “Right outside.”

                “That’s your problem.”

                “What do you mean?”

                “Come on!  You’re not a rookie.  You don’t get the staple food in the tourist areas. You have to go to the side street away from the tourist areas.  That’s where you find the real Belgian waffles.  This shit they make bad because tourists think they’re uncultured if they say it’s bad.”

                Fanis puts his head down and kicks himself for making such a mistake.  He really did know better.  Kera giggles, “Thanks for the waffle though.  I guess it’s the thought that counts.”

                They head out and go to the meeting.  Fanis stays on the outside with other security for the Belgians Kera is meeting with.  Fanis says to the security, “Hi, how are you doing?”

                They are a little trepid that Fanis is speaking to them but one responds back, “Hi”

                “How long you been in security?”

                “I thought you guys were English.”

                “We live in England now but we were born and raised in America.”

                “Oh, alright.  I can tell by your accent.”

                “Yea, it’s a dead give a way.”     

                “I was happy to see that your FISC finally attacked the FBI.”

                “Yea, it took them long enough!”

                “I didn’t really read the statement so I don’t know what they actually said.”

                “Well, the media and FBI keep talking about how it’s not their fault that the information was wrong because a judge signed off on it.  The FISC just reminded the FBI that it isn’t the court’s job to investigate the claim.  That’s the FBI’s job.  The judge assumes that everything the agent is telling them is true.  Based on what they’re told, they determine if there’s probable cause.  There’s no such thing as saying information must be true because a judge signed off on it.”

                “In Belgium, there are big penalties if law enforcement lies to the judge.”

                “it’s supposed to be that way in America too but lately, it appears laws don’t apply to you if you’re a Democrat.  Or, at least, don’t like President Trump.”

                “We call that ‘corruption’ here.”

                “Yea, I think we call it that in America too.’

                “At least the FISC reminded everyone that it’s the FBI’s fault not theirs.”

                “Yea, but they didn’t really attack them.  All they said is they have to make it right by January 10 but how are they going to do that?  Then they told them to tell them how they’re going to make sure they never do it again.  That’s basically a slap on the wrist. “

                “Yea, you’re asking them to police themselves.  Clearly, that didn’t work.  They need to press charges.”

                “I don’t think a court can do that but if there’s an equivalent of a ‘contempt of court’ for the FISC, they should do that.”

                “I would agree.”

                “All the FBI did was lie in this situation.  When Nunes came out with his memo two years ago saying how they abused the FISA, the FBI talked about how they had ‘grave concerns’ with the memo.  The IG report just proved Nunes right so the FBI lied because they were well aware that Nunes was right.”

                “Who is Nunes?”

                “He’s the highest ranking Republican in the American congress.  He’s a congressman from California.”

                “The FBI openly attacked a member of congress for calling them out on something they actually did?”

                “Yes”

                The security guard shook his head, “That’s really dangerous.  How about ‘nobody cares about the FBI’s grave concerns, they just spied on a presidential campaign?”

“Yea, I’m a little worried about my home country.  I’d like to say that I’m glad I live in England but I don’t think they’re much better.”

                “They’re not.”

                “Yea, we are screwed no matter where we go.”

                The meeting ends and Kera walks out.  Fanis voices good bye to the man he was talking to and they head out.  They walk by the Mannekin Piis status which is behind a fence since people vandalized it so frequently.  It’s a lot smaller than people realize and not very impressive.  There are replicas all over the city that could be used to replace the real one and it wouldn’t be a drop off.  Fanis and Kera go and get Mussels which is the less famous food to get in Belgium and very worth it.  Again, they go to a bar and drink beer.  As they are leaving, someone approached them.  He says to Kera, “Are you Kera Palyakis?”

                “Yes”

                “You should refrain from your illicit dealing in Belgium.  We’re on to you.”

                Kera tenses up but Fanis narrows his eyes.  “Why don’t you mind your own business asshole?”

                Kera feels Fanis’ left arm grab hers and pulls and she takes the hint and gets behind Fanis.  He puffs out his chest confrontationally, “I’m not feeling too big a fan of law enforcement right now.”

                Fanis and Kera are both Greek and both fluent in the language.  Kera states in Greek, “Calm down, we’re in his country.”

                “No, we’re not” he mutters back in Greek.

                “Trust me; this isn’t the time to be a tough guy.  You don’t want to do this man.” The stranger warns

                Kera notices what Fanis did.  There was no hint of a French or Flemish accent.  This man was an American.  “You know what I do think it’s time for?  To get rid of the three letter agencies.”

                “You want chaos?  Over a couple bad seeds?  That’s the problem with you liberals.”

                That marked the first time that Fanis has ever been called a liberal.  He didn’t even bother to address it but it did confirm that he didn’t have much information on them.  “There only needs to be three agencies for law enforcement.  One for law enforcement and national federal crimes, another for counter-terrorist and counter-intelligence and specialty type work and a third that are inspectors and internal affairs that monitors the other two.”

                “Who monitors the monitors?”

                “The people.”

                “How is that not the same thing as the FBI, CIA and internal affairs?”

                “There’s also DEA, ICE, and inspector generals are part of the CIA and DOJ or FBI.  They are monitoring themselves; much less efficient.  Granted, you could have corruption in my model but it’s harder than the way it is now.”

                “Big law enforcement operations breed corruption.  Haven’t you heard Lord Byron; power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely?  If they’re too large, they can target Americans and there’d be little to stop them.”

                “That already happened!” Yelled Fanis  “It’s not even the first time.  J Edgar Hoover blackmailed pretty much everybody and he founded the FBI.  Then you have the FISA and NSA abuse.  Look at the last five years with Spygate.  What they did to Mike Flynn, Lokhova, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, John McCain, and that’s just the ones we know about.  Hell, the FBI blackmailed Martin Luther King to try to get him to kill himself.  There is no point in history that the FBI has been good.”

                As Fanis spoke, the man’s face contorted and reddened in anger.  He responded by throwing a punch at Fanis, which he anticipated and ducked under.  Fanis unleashed a couple punches into the man’s kidneys and then he stepped to the side.  Fanis believed that the man he was fighting was highly trained, which made him predictable.  In this situation, the correct move was to throw your elbow back and snap the back of your head to follow it.  Fanis no longer being behind him makes the person off balanced.  His foot being extended out means the accuser trips over Fanis’ leg and onto his back.  Kera sprints off still unsure if she should be worried about the accusation made to her.  Fanis puts his foot on his chest and applies pressure.  “See, with my model, law enforcement can’t hide behind the ‘you don’t know what we do here’ speech.  People in the organization know what they do and so do people on the outside.  When people are aware of your role and your responsibility, it’s harder to abuse your power.”

                The man grabbed Fanis’ leg and wrapped his leg around Fanis’ and kicked at his midsection toppling Fanis over.  Fanis scrambled toward his feet but caught a kick to the face turning him around.  The man slid behind Fanis and wrapped his right arm around Fanis’ throat.  He then used his left arm to pull on his right wrist as he grabbed his left shoulder with his right hand and his left hand on his right shoulder.  The man wrapped his legs around Fanis interlocked his ankles flexing his feet and pushing down.  The choke hold was locked in deep and Fanis’ face turned red.  The man calmly expressed, “You can’t be a prisoner of the moment.  There was only FISA and NSA abuses one time.  Blowing up the whole system is not the answer.”

                Although this choke hold is very effective in a controlled violent setting like an octagon, mat or ring, in a street fight, the escape isn’t too scientific.  Fanis reached back with his right hand and jammed his thumb in the choke artist’s eye.  As he pressed, he slid it toward the side for maximum pain.  Fanis felt the grip on his neck tightened but he was calm and knew that he could hold his breath longer than the guy could withstand someone shoving on his eye socket.  The submission executor released the hold and grabbed Fanis’ hand and yanked it off his eye.  Fanis wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice and he darted his leg back kicking the person behind him in the groin.  It was only then that Fanis got to his feet.  He retorted, “That’s just a lie.  Rand Paul and Mike Lee have been warning against FISA for years.  This isn’t a new thing.  Mike Rogers, who headed the NSA, said that 80% of the about queries on the database were fraudulent.  80%!  Yea, the NYPD follows my model and they’ve had their share of corruption but it’s better than this.”

                Both men were panting for different reasons; Fanis because he was just being choked and his opponent since he was infuriated that Fanis used dirty tactics to gain an edge.  Fanis smiled back at him realizing what he was thinking, which forced the man to charge.  Fanis fell to the side, sticking his left leg out and when the charger came at him, he kicked at his right leg and collapsed him forward.  Fanis sprung up and hopped in the air dropping his left leg near the man’s head and then stomping his right on the back of the man who threatened his cousin’s head.  He quickly lost consciousness but that didn’t stop Fanis from kicking him in the side of the head.  Fanis reached into his pocket and pulled out the man’s wallet.  He opened it up and confirmed his suspicion.  There was a badge with the letters “FBI’ across it.  Fanis took out the badge and put it in his pocket.  He ripped the man’s shirt down the middle and pulled his arms behind his back using one half of the shirt to tie his arms behind his back.  He then used the other half to constrain his legs.  He rolled him onto his side and slapped him lightly in the face.  It didn’t take long for him to wake up.  Fanis inquired, “Now, special agent Jackass, tell me what is the FBI doing in Belgium.”

                “None of your fucking business.”

                “See, that’s where you’re wrong.  I’m an American and I pay taxes.  You are supposed to serve me.  I pay your salary.”

                “That is so naïve.  The government pays us.  That doesn’t give every person in America the right to boss us around.  How stupid can you be?”

                “No, but I’m the man that knocked your ass out and now you’re tied up so you are in no position to boss me around but I am in a position to boss you around.”

                “Fuck you.”

                “The FBI is for domestic issues.  We are in Belgium.  You have no jurisdiction here bitch.  You’re not a special agent; you’re just a lay person like me.”

                “You sure about that?  Haven’t you seen Criminal Minds Beyond Borders?”

                “Yea, but they defend Americans that are abroad.”

                “They operate internationally don’t they?”

                “This doesn’t qualify.  You’re pursuing an American abroad not protecting an American that happens to be in a different country.”

                “The fact that an agency like that exists should lead you to believe that your theory that I’m on in operation in a foreign country doesn’t mean I don’t have jurisdiction.”

                “Nah, you FBI types don’t believe in a fair fight.  If this was sanctioned, there’d be back up here by now to take my ass out and rescue you.  You’re out of your element.”

                “You don’t know what we do here.”

                “See, it’s this shit why my idea is right.  Why can’t the FBI just be solely a domestic organization?  Stay away from my cousin.”

                With that, Fanis walked off.  The FBI agent calls out, “Untie me! You can’t just leave me here like this!  Release me right now!”

                Fanis just kept walking proving the agent wrong; he could just leave him there.”

                When Fanis was out of sight from the FBI agent, he rubbed his neck.  Even though he wasn’t in the hold for very long, his neck hurt.  When he arrives at the hotel, Kera had her arms crossed.  “What the fuck was that?”

                Fanis reaches into his pocket and tosses her the FBI’s badge.  “He’s FBI.”

                Kera rolls the badge in her fingers and gives a wry smile.  Fanis knew what she was communicating without saying.  She was praising him for doing the right thing because she knew what to do with the badge but she couldn’t tell him that because Fanis wanted to believe that there was nothing nefarious about his little cousin.  “We got to leave.”

                “No, he was rogue.”

                “You sure?”

                “Yea, I almost killed him and nobody came to his aid.  If he was on official business, I would have gotten swarmed.”

                “Or, they were monitoring you to see if you led them to me…which you did.”

                “I took evasive measures.  Nobody followed me.”

                Kera gave him a worried look but figured she would listen to him.  It wasn’t that she trusted him or that she thought he was right, it was just that if Kera was right, it doesn’t matter when they left, they knew where she was.  “Well, while you were consorting with the enemy, I was socializing with your enemy?”

                “Who’s that?”

                “CNN’s Brian Stelter” she replied and then giggled.

                Fanis chuckled, “What’s he bitching about now?”

                “That Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch was on Fox promoting his book.  He says that Supreme Court justices should never self-promote on a media network because they should be above that.”

                “Didn’t Ruth Bade Ginsburg advertize a documentary about her on CNN?”

                “Yes, and Stelter advertized it.”

                “Oh good, he’s a hypocrite.  At least we don’t have to guess anymore.”

                “Yea, no bombshell today; everyone is acting in character.”

                They get ready for bed and the next morning, Fanis takes a five minute walk down side streets before getting a Belgian Waffle.  When he brings it back to the hotel and tries it, it’s as delicious as he remembered.  He brought one for Kera too and couldn’t wait for her to wake up.  Kera does so and finds her waffle waiting for her.  She rips off a piece and tastes it and smiles, “Much better choice cuz.”

                They go the airport and Kera spent the whole time on the phone speaking rapidly in Mandarin.  Fanis daydreamed until they got to the hangar and got on the plane.  Now that she was off the phone, she pronounced to Fanis, “This impeachment has really rattled cages.”

                “How?  It’s not going to pass the 67 Senators.”

                “Well, people aren’t willing to cover up anymore.  I think things are going to start coming out.”

                “Like how Obama knew that they were spying on political candidates?”

                “Yea, impeaching Trump for mentioning Biden’s name to Ukrainians. It might become public how what Obama did to the Republican candidates was infinitely worse.  If you consider what Trump did a grenade, this is an atomic bomb.”

                “What Trump did was like that little thing that expands like a snake when you put it on fire that you give to little kids so they can participate in 4^th of July pyrotechnics.  Though, Obama is still the atomic bomb.”

                “That’s actually fair.”

                “Care to let me know?”

                “Not from me.  When we get back to London, I arranged for some meetings with people.  They’ll tell you all the juicy shit you like knowing. “

                “Who are they?”

                “GCHQ and MI6 operatives.”

                “Oh, cool”

                Kera knew he wouldn’t ask the follow up question on how she arranged this.  It wasn’t that Fanis didn’t think about it, it was that he sincerely didn’t want to know.  Kera did this as a reward because what resulted from that badge was very useful for Kera.  They land in England and head back to Kera’s flat.  They drop their stuff off and a short while later, a car comes.  Kera calls out, “Fanis, your ride’s here.”

                Fanis walks out of the flat and gets into the car.  He genuinely has no idea what this is about but it crosses his mind that Kera didn’t like that he drew attention to her from the FBI and was now about to be executed.  He accepted this fate.  Although Kera only hired him because she knew he would never turn on her and never try to harm her no matter how much he was offered, Fanis didn’t have the same faith in her.  In a way, that’s what made their business relationship so effective.  When shit hit the fan, Kera had no problem running and leaving Fanis to fend for himself.  Fanis knew everyone dies and defending someone you care about is a great way to go.  Kera would just be happy to have gotten away.  Although she knew she would never find another bodyguard that she believed would be loyal to her more than Fanis, that was a minor problem to deal with.

                When Fanis got into the car, there is a woman sitting in the back seat.  Fanis extends his hand, “Hello, I’m Fanis”

                “I know who you are.  You can refer to me as ‘V”

                “Okay V, nice to meet you.”

                “Likewise.  What I’m about to tell you cannot leave this car.  In fact, give your cell phone and I-watch to the agent.”

                Fanis takes out his phone and removes his watch and gives it to the agent in the front passenger seat and the agent runs it to the house.  Kera answers the door and accepts it without surprise.  When the agent returns, the car drives off.  “Do you understand?”

                “Yes”

                V hands Fanis a memo written by Hillary Clinton.  He reads through it and it’s a strategy for how to deal with the Republican field during the primary debates.  Fanis reads to the middle and sees a list of ‘pied piper candidates.’  There are three names; Ben Carson, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.  Fanis confesses, “I’m not quite sure what I’m looking at.”

                “The pied piper candidates are people the DNC wanted to hype up because they thought Hillary stood a better chance to beat them.”

                “Well they were wrong.  Donald Trump beat her.”

                “That came later.  Do you know why they were picked?”

                “You just told me.  Hillary thought they were weak candidates that she could beat.”

                “Yes, but why?  What do they have in common?”

                “They’re not politically correct?”

                “Kind of, they’re all renegades and are not establishment guys.”

                “Alright, I can see that.”

                “You know what the problem with that is?”

                “Are we going to play 20 questions?  Are you Socrates and you’re going to use the Socratic method until I figure it out myself?”

                “You are Greek aren’t you?”

                “I am”

                “Alright then that shouldn’t be a problem.  What’s the problem with the non-establishment types?”

                “Well, sometimes you prefer the devil you know.  When they’re not the opponent you’re used to, they’re less predictable.”
                “Exactly, see you can do this.”

                “Okay, so Rubio and Jeb Bush were the more establishment types so they’re easy to predict but It’s harder to differentiate yourself from someone like you.  Hillary is an establishment type so she didn’t want to go against another establishment type.”

                “It may have been better because they were easier to predict.”

                “Hindsight is 2020.”

                “I know all this.  Nobody thought Donald Trump would win, that’s why they got careless.”

                “Careless with what?”

                “The spying.”

                “Why did they spy?”

                “They’re deep state, KGB style, power hungry assholes.”

                “There’s a more practical reason.”

                “What’s that?”

                “Well, we just talked about the trade offs between renegade types and establishment types.  What if you didn’t have to have a trade off?”

                “You lost me.”

                “If you spy on a renegade, then they become more predictable because you know what they’re going to do.”

                Fanis’ eyes shot up as this sunk in.  “That makes sense.”

                “But, there are rules in America that make it hard to spy.”

                “That’s why they lured people on the Trump campaign to England.”

                “It wasn’t just here.  It was all the five eyes allies.  Obama contacted us to help them spy on the Republicans.”

                “And they just impeached President Trump for asking the Ukrainians to see if anything happened in the past.  This is future and current events they were tracking.”
                “Correct, Democrats are the ultimate projectionists.”

                “I always knew that.”

                “I know.  Your cousin tells me.”

                “Let me get this straight.  You’re confirming that British intelligence helped spy on Trump’s campaign because the Obama team couldn’t do it themselves. They outsourced their spying to the UK?”

                “Yea, and before they knew Trump would win the election, they admitted it.  A CNN report confirmed it.”

                “They seem to have forgotten it now.”

                “They are in damage control.”

                “Alright, so we’re in Trump category.  We’re talking about the past.  What’s going to happen in the future?”
                “You’re going to see dossier information show up in memos from the British to America.”

                “What was the CNN reporting?”

                “An article titled, ‘British Intelligence passed Trump Associates’ communications with Russia on to US Counterparts.”

                “That was the Mifsud and Downer meetings with Papadopoulos.”

                “Ever wonder why it started with him?”

                “No”

                “Was he always on the Trump campaign?”

                “I don’t know”

                “Didn’t keep track of your countrymen?”

                “No, there’s a lot of Greeks.  Contrary to common belief, we don’t all know each other.”

                “He worked for Ben Carson’s campaign first.”

                “Oh alright”

                “Remember who was on the pied piper list.”

                “Yea, Carson was on it with Trump and Cruz.”

                “Don’t you find it odd that the moment Trump announces George Papadopoulos is on his campaign, they send all these assets to him?”

                “No, the second Trump people are unmasked, they come at them with everything they have.”

                “Only when he was clearly going to be the nominee.  Why was Papadopoulos first?”

                “I don’t know.”

                “Do you remember that time?”

                “Yea, everyone thought Donald Trump was a flash in the pan and he’d get bored and either drop out or fizzle out.  Nobody thought he’d maintain the lead.”

                “Nobody includes Hillary’s team.”

                “Right”

                “So, why Papadopoulos?”

                “Don’t know.”

                “They already knew about him because they were spying on him when they spied on Ben Carson’s campaign.  They didn’t have to start from scratch with him because they already had a file.”

                “Oh wow”

                “Yes, wow.”

                “What about the FISA?  If they had the five eyes, why did they need a FISA?”

                “One, they wanted to keep it in house so they could sell it better to the American people but the main reason is that the FISA was to cover up their illegal spying they had been doing for years dating back to 2014.”

                “With Mike Flynn”

                “Right, because he criticized the Iran deal, so they targeted him.”

                “What about the dossier?”

                “Despite lying to the FISA court, they were shut down on getting a FISA on Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.  They needed a crime so we provided Christopher Steele to make one up and then planted in the media that he was a credible source and was responsible for taking down FIFA.”

                “He wasn’t?”

                “No, none of his information was used in the investigation because it was all bullocks”

                “So, Steele lies about the Rosneft bribe so that they have their crime to get the FISA”

                “Bingo.”

                “Why are you telling me this?”

                “One, Kera asked me to.  The other is that Boris Johnson just won the election and the new prime minister is ideologically with Trump.  There are some that want to do to him what the Democrats did to Trump but it appears that Boris Johnson will get his way.”

                The conversation continues and Fanis is shocked by what he learned.  He knew the collusion and corruption went deep but he didn’t realize how deep it went.  He returned to the flat stunned.  Kera inquired charmingly with a shit grin on her face, “Have fun?”

                “Yea, that’s pretty nuts.  Thanks for arranging that for me.”

                “No problem”

                Fanis grabs a beer and sits down to watch TV.  He could use mindless television after what he just learned.