Present day, Earth, outside village of Stefan Voda in Moldova (near Black Sea), Timeline 314 * (As recorded by Time Keepers)
A cool draft rolls over the sleeping man early in the morning as the sun rises. It's near freezing outside and the villagers fear an early frost may damage their crops. Vladimir Stravinsky isn't concerned about the crops, because he has bigger problems. But for today, he's called himself a farmer's hand in order to find shelter for the night and a place to rest.
Vladimir has been permitted to stay in the guest house in exchange for labor in the fields. This is his first night spent in the guest house and he's quite fortunate since this morning is Sunday and it's his only day off from work for the week. The farm is located just minutes outside of Stefan Voda in Moldova, a landlocked country in Eastern Europe located between Romania and Ukraine. Even though the country is landlocked, it is very close to the Black Sea, but more importantly it provides cover for him as he has other business in the nearby region.
It's been two years since he's talked to his wife and daughter. The man is on the run from two of the United States government's most elite agencies - the CIA and NSA. By order of the CIA, he's been declared a rogue CIA operative who turned on an undercover NSA agent.
Vladimir's given name is Matthew Beckett and he has been on the run every since after a complex situation in the Black Sea involving a notorious Turkish international weapons dealer. Somehow his role as an undercover CIA agent, the weapons dealer, and a known NSA agent were all together aboard an oil platform in the Black Sea. During the mix up in international investigations, he had to maintain his cover by outing the NSA agent who wasn't suppose to be there and would most likely mess up his own mission.
The deal went bad. The Turkish weapons dealer imprisoned the NSA agent and even shot at Beckett, but he was able to jump off the platform and swim to safety. Soon thereafter, he was deemed a rogue agent and status updated to 'œKill On Sight.' Beckett used his skills to elude capture and death. That momentous incident occurred only a few hundred miles from here within the Black Sea.
Since he's been on the run, he's discovered a global paramilitary organization that has begun to pursue him. He hasn't had time to stop and ask why they are tracking or shooting at him, but he believes that the CIA might have outsourced some work to a paramilitary contractor and that's not so unbelievable. All that he knows is that both the CIA and NSA have 'œkill on sight' orders and there's a new non-US organization also chasing him.
Matthew isn't in Moldova to visit the vineyards or for wine tasting, he's here because his best source of information in eastern Europe, Tishka Gromov lives less than an hour away. Three days ago, Matthew received an encrypted message from Tishka saying that he's found some new information regarding the paramilitary organization and other requests.
In less than two hours, Matthew is scheduled to met the reclusive information dealer for a data exchange at the port of Palanca, approximately 45 kilometers southeast. His contact, an old Russian, former KGB agent who specializes in information gathering is a bit off in the head, but one of the best at what he does. And more importantly, he knows how to keep his mouth shut. This trusted information dealer has sold information to Matthew several times in the past and even owes Matthew a favor that he's hoping to collect today. Tishka believes the cold war is still going on and that the American capitalistic pigs will still fall at the mighty hand of Mother Russia and that Matthew's alias of Vladimir Stravinsky is secretly working for the KGB.
It's the first night that Matthew's been able to sleep in a bed in weeks, even if the bed smells like a wet dog. The old guest house had drafts of cool night air blowing in under the door and through the unsealed windows most of the night, but the breeze that he's currently feeling feels more than a draft. It feels like someone's opened the door.
It's 6am and Nika Ignatev, the farmer's daughter, stands leaning against the door frame with the door wide open. With a lit cigarette in her hand, she eyes Matthew as the family's dog, called Rada, quickly moves into the room and jumps on the bed. Mostly likely, Rada believes the man to be sleeping in his bed.
In her best sultry voice, she attempts to seduce the young man 'œ<Russian>Vlad, father is off to the village to collect supplies. How about we go play in the fields for a while?'
so I'll use the internet to find some other colorful words