East of Immunity

[Zak]

Inside a secure office tucked away from the public-facing sections of the Russian Embassy in Istanbul, Anastasiya Baranovskaya stood silently as a slim paper folder was placed on the table before her. There were no lengthy explanations, no dramatic speeches, and no unnecessary details. The instructions had already been compartmentalized long before they reached her.

Her diplomatic posting as a cultural attaché remained her official identity. Embassy receptions, meetings with local officials, and cultural exchanges had built the reputation of an unassuming civil servant whose work rarely extended beyond protocol and paperwork. That carefully maintained image was precisely what made her valuable.

The folder contained only what she needed.

One name.

One location.

A recent photograph.

A timeline.

Her destination was Ağrı, a city nearly fifteen hundred kilometers east of Istanbul. There, according to the intelligence summary, she was to discreetly locate an individual named Kenan Tekdağ and establish contact under circumstances that would attract no attention. Whether the meeting produced useful information or nothing at all was secondary to confirming the man's identity and assessing the environment surrounding him.

Anastasiya read every page twice before committing the details to memory. When she finished, the papers were returned to the courier waiting outside the office. Within minutes, they would be destroyed. Nothing written would accompany her east.

The operation would appear entirely routine.

Official travel authorization had already been filed through the embassy's administrative channels, listing the journey as regional cultural outreach connected to archival research. It was convincing enough to withstand casual scrutiny while remaining deliberately mundane. The less remarkable the paperwork appeared, the less likely anyone would remember it.

Before sunrise the following morning, Anastasiya departed the embassy compound carrying a single overnight bag and a leather document case containing only legitimate diplomatic paperwork. The embassy's official vehicles remained parked behind secure gates. They were too recognizable and too easily associated with diplomatic movements.

Instead, she arrived at a commercial rental agency on the European side of the city.

A compact white sedan awaited her, clean, inexpensive, mechanically reliable, and almost impossible to distinguish from the thousands of similar vehicles moving across Türkiye every day. The rental agreement bore the name Anastasiya Baranovskaya, Russian Embassy attaché, perfectly matching her diplomatic credentials.

It was exactly the sort of vehicle someone would forget moments after seeing it.

With the morning traffic beginning to build, she eased the car onto the motorway leading away from Istanbul. The city's skyline gradually faded behind her as dense neighborhoods gave way to open highways stretching across Anatolia. The drive would take the better part of a day, carrying her through changing landscapes of farmland, dry plains, mountain passes, and isolated towns before the eastern provinces came into view.

The journey itself was part of the cover.

She obeyed every traffic regulation, stopped only at ordinary fuel stations, purchased coffee and food from roadside service areas, and paid exclusively with embassy-issued cards that supported the narrative of an attaché traveling on official business. Every receipt, every toll payment, and every camera that captured the rental car reinforced the same story should anyone ever retrace her route.

Her personal phone remained switched off inside the glove compartment.

Only the encrypted device issued for operational use rested within reach, silent throughout the drive except for a single vibration confirming that the mission parameters remained unchanged.

Late in the afternoon, the silhouette of Mount Ağrı emerged against the horizon.

Anastasiya slowed as she entered the city limits, merging effortlessly with local traffic. To anyone watching, she was simply another diplomat traveling across eastern Türkiye.

Only she knew that the real purpose of the journey would begin once she stepped away from the rental car.

Jay

 

[Jay]

SECRET
​

The highway east of Erzurum had become noticeably slower by late afternoon.

What should have been a routine journey across eastern Anatolia had settled into a patient crawl as civilian traffic compressed into a single lane. Freight trucks, buses, and family cars stretched for kilometers ahead, their brake lights flickering in uneven waves beneath a cloudless summer sky.

Anastasiya rested one hand lightly on the steering wheel.

No one appeared particularly alarmed.

Drivers stepped from their vehicles to smoke cigarettes, stretch their legs, or exchange irritated remarks with strangers. A tea vendor had already begun walking between the stationary cars carrying a steel kettle suspended from a shoulder strap, doing brisk business among motorists resigned to the delay.

Whatever had caused the congestion lay somewhere beyond the next rise.

Several minutes later, Anastasiya could see why.

A column of Turkish military vehicles rolled through the adjacent carriageway under the supervision of traffic police positioned at every junction. Civilian traffic remained stopped while the convoy continued east.

The first vehicles were armored reconnaissance elements, their crews visible behind protective glass. They were followed by rows of mine-resistant patrol vehicles carrying soldiers whose expressions betrayed little emotion despite the long hours on the road.

Flatbed transporters carried Leopard 2 main battle tanks secured beneath heavy chains, their long barrels pointing backward. Recovery vehicles, engineering equipment, fuel tankers, and mobile communications trucks followed with practiced spacing.

The convoy continued for nearly fifteen minutes.

No horns sounded as drivers simply watched. Some lifted mobile phones to record the procession before returning them to their pockets as military police quietly discouraged anyone from lingering too close to the roadside.

When traffic finally resumed, Anastasiya turned her attention to the radios, hoping to hear any news but finding no luck. She watched as a third convoy sped past her, then another...and then another.

As the kilometers disappeared beneath the rental car's tires, eastern Türkiye gradually revealed itself. Villages became more isolated. The mountains drew closer. Occasional helicopters could be seen crossing distant valleys before disappearing behind rugged ridgelines.

Near Horasan, the low rumble of jet engines interrupted the silence. Anastasiya glanced upward through the windshield.

Two Turkish F-16s crossed high overhead in disciplined formation, banking southeast before vanishing into the afternoon haze. They were only visible for a few moments, yet their presence lingered long after the sound had faded among the mountains.

The radio inside the rental sedan offered no explanation.

Military aircraft, lengthy convoys, and heightened movement across the eastern provinces could all be explained by routine readiness, scheduled exercises, or that the Turks' were preparation for war.
Her assignment remained unchanged.

She continued toward Ağrı. By the time the snow-capped silhouette of Mount Ağrı dominated the eastern skyline, the delays had cost her nearly three hours.

The city itself appeared calm. Rush-hour traffic flowed through broad avenues lined with apartment blocks, government buildings, and cafés preparing for the evening crowd. Shopkeepers swept sidewalks. Children kicked a football through a narrow side street. Life continued with little outward indication that military activity had intensified only a short distance away.

She parked several streets from the location noted in memory.

The rental car attracted no attention. Its white paint had already collected a thin film of Anatolian dust that made it indistinguishable from dozens of similar sedans parked nearby.

The café stood on a quiet corner overlooking a small square. Inside, the atmosphere was warm and unhurried. Glasses clinked softly against saucers. A television mounted above the counter played the evening news with the volume turned low while conversations drifted between Turkish and Kurdish in subdued voices.

Near the window sat Kenan Tekdağ. He appeared precisely as the photograph had suggested, though perhaps older than the intelligence file implied. A neatly trimmed beard framed a weathered face, and a small tulip-shaped glass of tea rested untouched beside him.

He looked toward the entrance only once.

Their eyes met for barely a second. He did not acknowledge her as he got up, leaving a paper in his check. When Anastasiya approached the table, she would see that it had a rendezvous point at a fountain not too far from there.

When she arrived, Kenan emerged from behind her and held a black mask, which he waved almost cheekily in front of her. "Sorry." Tossing it to her, giving her the choice to put it on herself. If she accepted, then Kenan would guide her in a white pickup truck, which drove them another hour or so before Kenan unbuckled her and guided her into a safe house. He then lifted the mask, and there Anastasiya would see the former Turkish Vice President Eda Yildiz. The very one who was on the run after the Turkish army ousted her and her government from power. It was definitely a bigger fish than she was expecting.

Zak