Written by Scooplet
Concept by Cheryl and Susan
Scarecrow and Mrs. King characters are the property of Shoot the Moon Productions and Warner Bros. Television. No copyright infringement intended. Not for commercial use. Sarah Stetson and Matt Granger are my creation, however, so please respect my right to claim ownership of them—I do not authorize permission to use them in stories not authored by me.
Chapter One
August 2011
One by one the four men converged in the back room of the Monterrey restaurant. It was not a large establishment, but it was popular with the locals and off the usual tourist routes. Not that there were as many tourists in this part of Mexico since the drug cartels had increased their activity and started shooting more innocent bystanders. None of the four men seemed to notice the figure quietly observing them from a booth in the corner near the back room. The man lounged on the bench, one leg crooked sideways, while he nursed a beer and dawdled over his carne asada. He had been a regular at the restaurant for weeks now, but his nondescript appearance had garnered little attention from anyone. No one except the waitress who waited on his table and on the men in the back room. She adjusted her earring and glanced briefly at the booth before going into the room to bring the men their drinks.
Inside the room, the discussion was low, but heated. "You're off your game, Luis. You missed her twice. You even had Piedro there to help you at the church. We could have delivered her as a prize to Gutierrez and gained some points."
Luis Santiago grew defensive. "You and your brother think you are so smart, Marcelo. She is carrying on with the agent. Gutierrez wouldn't want a woman like her."
"Oh, she is young enough; I doubt he'd care. I've seen him with a few…" Marcelo's voice trailed off as the waitress brought their drinks. He let his eyes wander over her figure, then placed a hand on her back and let it slip down below the waistline of her skirt as she passed by. She slapped it away. He tried to grab her, but Diego stopped him and she quickly left the room.
"Leave her be, Marcelo. We're here on business."
Marcelo was flippant. "You don't know how to have fun, my brother."
"Concentrate. You give the Jimenez family a bad name." Diego flashed a look at Marcelo and continued. "This Stetson girl has clearly had some training, from the way she forced Marcus off the road. It is a good thing we brought the right weapons to take down the helicopter and hold off the agents, or we would be rotting in prison along with Marcus right now."
Luis was quick to agree with Marcelo. "We know that her parents are important agents—in fact her father is some kind of chief or something. She would bring quite a bit of money. We will need to regroup, wait for their guard to be down, and try again."
"I would be most happy to take out her boyfriend in the process." Piedro Gomez gulped down some of his beer. "We should have shot this dog Granger along with his partner while we had the chance. If it were not for the two of them, we would have the girl by now, and be done with this mess."
Diego broke in. "Perhaps we should just cut our losses. We started this fight, and it has cost us two of our men already. She may be a nice, high profile target, but she also has some very difficult connections to overcome. We take out the boyfriend, and others will pop up to protect her—with a vengeance."
"Diego, my brother." Marcelo's voice was chilling, even to Diego. "That is what makes this game so much fun. If we succeed here in making those agents look like fools, we will make a name for ourselves with Gutierrez. And eventually we may be in power ourselves someday. This will just show our strength."
"I do not trust this source of yours, Marcelo. The American agents are watching for the cartel to make trouble. We have already made our point by beating up Granger and shooting his partner. How do we know this mole of yours is not setting us up?"
"The only reason we were not successful is that we underestimated the girl. We will not do so again. My source is not leading us along." Marcelo took a long swig of his beer and looked back at the other men. His voice grew hard again. "We wait a few weeks, and then make our move. We will look for another opportunity—and there will be one. This time they will not have the upper hand."
The waitress appeared with the food and served it, carefully avoiding Marcelo. When she emerged from the backroom, she glanced over at the booth.
The man was gone, his carne untouched.
SMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMK
It was a cool late summer morning, and the birds were singing in the trees. Matt felt like whistling along with them, but refrained as he sauntered up the Stetsons' driveway, gym bag in hand. A thunderstorm had blown through during the night, bringing a cool breeze with it. He knew that Sarah would need to tell her parents about her scare with the cartel soon—probably this morning—before someone from the Agency leaked the story to them first. But it was still early, and he was hoping that he and Sarah could sneak in a little sparring and their run before any interruptions. He walked lightly up the stairs to Sarah's apartment above the garage. The door opened before he could knock.
"Hey there." Sarah was grinning, her mood matching Matt's. She opened the door wider for him to enter, and then shut it behind him.
"Hi." Matt let his hands encircle her waist as Sarah reached up to put her arms around his neck. They looked at one another for a moment. Matt spoke first. "You seem happy this morning."
"I am. I get to be with you. All day." Sarah reached up to meet Matt as he lowered his head towards hers for a kiss. When they broke apart, Sarah searched Matt's eyes before speaking again. "Did you sleep well? I was wondering how you'd do with the jet lag—it's evening in Kazakhstan."
"I may notice it later, but I slept like a log and woke up feeling pretty good. In fact, I thought we could spar before we went running."
"Oh." Sarah seemed to deflate a bit.
"Now, now." He rushed to placate her. "You're the one who wanted to practice that knifehand. And you're getting pretty good at taking me out. Let's get the mat and work out near the gazebo. It's far enough away from your parents' room, so we shouldn't disturb them."
Sarah ran her fingers through his hair. Almost involuntarily, Matt closed his eyes.
Matt anticipated her kiss, and pulled back before it could go too far, opening his eyes once again. "I know that trick, ma'am. And as much as I enjoy it when you do that, we're never going to get a workout in at this rate. Perhaps I can take a rain check?"
Sarah pretended to pout. "I was just trying to use up that sparring time. I can't pull anything over on you." She paused a beat and smiled at him. "But you're right. We should get going, and I'm the one who wanted to improve my techniques."
Matt refrained from saying that he felt an urgent need to make sure Sarah could defend herself. Her story about the near miss with the cartel had rattled him. Rene's phone call from the night before, filling him in on the details, had not helped either.
He followed her out the door and down the stairs.
SMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMK
Lee walked into the workout room—really Phillip and Jamie's old bedroom—which was now set up with a treadmill, an elliptical, a weight machine, and a television. He started to pick up the remote when he heard voices outside. He went to the window.
They were partially hidden from his view, but he could see that Sarah and Matt were sparring on a mat near the gazebo. He was using a cushion to deflect her knifehand strike. Ah, so she's finally mastered it. Lee felt a pang, remembering that she had asked him to help her. After a minute or two, Matt tossed the cushion to the chair and began feinting some moves with Sarah. Sheesh, Granger, you're pretty hard on her. Unexpectedly, Sarah managed to land Matt on his back. He lay there for a moment before Sarah offered her hand to help him up, but he playfully pulled her down on top of him. Lee could hear Sarah's laugh as he turned away to give them some privacy.
"Spying on someone, I see." Amanda stood in the doorway, watching him.
Lee ran his hand through his hair. "Matt was sparring with Sarah. She's made some nice progress—mastered a move we had some trouble with. She even flipped him on his back just now."
"And you wish it was you out there." It wasn't a question.
"Well, sort of. It's probably better this way. It's something that they seem to enjoy doing together. I'm not as agile as I used to be—hell, I don't think I'd like to have her flip me." Lee chuckled self-consciously.
"You're agile enough." Amanda moved to Lee and put her arms around his waist.
Lee's laugh was sincere this time. "Well, in that case, I'd better get to my workout, so I can stay in shape for my lovely wife." He kissed the tip of Amanda's nose. She kissed him back on the lips and went to the treadmill, while Lee took his place on the elliptical.
SMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMK
Stepping outside in the cool morning air, Lee felt refreshed. Amanda had been able to coax him into eating one of Sarah's muffins with his coffee, and now he was ready to get something done. He looked around the yard. Sarah had managed to pull the weeds while they were away, and the yard service had pruned the bushes when they mowed last week. With the garden in shape, Lee decided to wash the cars. He looked around for Sarah's car, thinking he would wash hers, too. It was not in sight. Maybe she and Matt went out for breakfast. As he neared the apartment stairs, he could hear their voices through the open window above him, but he could not make out what they were saying. From the distant clink of the dishes, he could tell Sarah had served them breakfast at her apartment. So, where's her car? He opened the side entrance of the garage and saw Sarah's Corolla parked on the other side of his BMW sedan. He grabbed the bucket and sponge and set to work on the Volvo.
Upstairs, Sarah was busy washing dishes while Matt used her bathroom to take a shower. She hoped her parents would not notice. It just makes more sense to have him shower here, instead of having to stop at his place or make him go back and forth. This way, we can head straight out to see the horses. She hoped her father would not get the wrong impression and give Matt a hard time. After drying her hands, she walked into the living room to see if Matt was finished. She felt her damp hair and pulled her fingers through it. Maybe I can run the blow dryer on it before we go…
Just then, Matt stepped out of the bathroom, his bag in hand. He set it near the door and turned around to see Sarah, still barefoot in her jeans and close-fitting t-shirt, working her fingers through her hair. He felt his breath catch at the sight of her. She has no idea how beautiful—and alluring—she looks right now.
"I'm going to run the blow dryer on my hair for a few minutes so I can braid it."
Matt nodded, not trusting his voice at the moment.
Down on the driveway, Lee was working on the Volvo, but his mind was on the puzzle of Sarah's car. Well, she probably parked it in the garage while she drove the SUV. That's a good thing, Stetson. You know how you hate thinking of her driving around in that little tin can. He finished rinsing the car and realized he had forgotten the squeegee in the garage. He went to the side entrance. It was too dark to see, so rather than turn on the light, Lee opened the main garage door. Seeing the object of his search in the daylight, he grabbed it and walked back out onto the driveway. He was still musing about the Corolla. But she wouldn't take her mother's car to the Metro lot. He turned back around to look at the car.
In the bathroom above, Sarah had felt the rumble of the garage door opener. She kept drying her hair for a moment before realization struck her. Finally putting the dryer down, she ran to her room and slipped on her flip flops.
Matt had been waiting on the couch when she rushed from the bathroom inexplicably. Wondering at her actions as she ran from her room to the front door, he stood up and moved to stop her. "Sarah. What's wrong?"
Just then, Lee's voice could be heard loudly through the window.
"Oh, my God."
Sarah gave Matt a wild look and ran out of the apartment.
In the garage, Lee stood transfixed, staring at the side of the Corolla, the muscles in his jaw working overtime. After his initial outburst, he had said nothing. He could hear Sarah's lighter footsteps running, and then Matt's heavier, more deliberate tread coming down the stairs. He turned towards the driveway, his hands on his hips.
Sarah came to a halt in the doorway with Matt on her heels. Amanda soon appeared behind them. As Sarah stood there, Lee could see she was trembling. He saw Matt notice it, too. Matt started to reach out a hand to her shoulder, but stopped himself, as if recognizing that it might hinder, rather than help the situation. As they both stood there, watching Sarah, Lee realized that Matt knew what had happened to the car. He felt a knot growing in his stomach.
"Sarah. What happened to your car? This was no fender bender." Past experience told Lee that the damage to the car was deliberate. As much as he wanted to know the details, he dreaded hearing how it had happened to his daughter.
"I was hoping to talk with you about it before you saw it, but…" Sarah's tremulous voice faltered to a stop.
"Were you hurt? What are you afraid to tell me, Sarah?" Lee forced himself to be patient. He knew for certain that the damage to the car was somehow related to the Agency. The old fear of endangering his daughter was back. Thinking his posture might be threatening to Sarah, he dropped his hands to his sides and spoke gently. "You must know you can talk to me about these things. You've never been afraid to talk to me before."
"Oh, Daddy, I was scared. But not of you. I just didn't want you to worry…" Sarah felt her lower lip tremble. She looked down to hide the tears she knew were forming in her eyes. Oh, why do I have to be such a cry baby? I feel like a teenager right now.
Matt forced himself to stand still. He wanted to go to Sarah. He could see she was miserable and the sight of her car was disturbing. But he knew that she needed her father's solace at the moment.
Lee went to his daughter and wrapped his arms around her. He closed his eyes as she clung to him. Finally, he pulled away and looked in her face. His voice was husky as he spoke. "Please tell me what happened, Sarah. Were you hurt?"
Amanda pulled a tissue from her pocket and offered it to Sarah.
She dabbed at her eyes before speaking. "I'm fine, physically. I think we had better go up to the apartment." Sarah looked at her father meaningfully. He understood her and glanced over at his wife. Amanda's mouth was set in a grim line. Lee knew she shared the same concern over the cause of the accident.
Lee noticed the gym bag by the door, but did not say anything as he allowed Sarah to lead him to the couch. Matt and Amanda seated themselves in the chairs nearby.
Sarah spoke quietly, so her voice would not carry through the open window. "Mom, Daddy, I don't know how much you know about the cartel arrest from last weekend…"
"I'm more interested to know how you know anything about that. The fact they were cartel was not made public." Lee sat upright on the couch and did not relax. The muscles in his jaw started working again.
Sarah looked over at Matt, and then back at her father. "They followed me."
Matt finally broke in. "Well, they followed me, at first, when we were together."
Amanda watched as Lee turned to Matt. "Francine told me that you lost them."
"I did. Once near the Agency, once on the way to the cabin, then again on the way to dinner one night. At some point they must have seen Sarah with me. Although I was never quite able to identify the drivers, they appeared to be part of the group from that…" Matt glanced at Sarah, then back at Lee. "…operation."
Lee looking sharply at Matt. He cleared his throat. "You went to the cabin?"
Matt was suddenly uncomfortable, and Amanda started to speak. "Lee, not…"
Sarah interrupted her. "Daddy, we just had a picnic lunch out on the rock. I forgot the key. Don't get the wrong idea." Then, as if remembering something, Sarah looked over at Matt. "I thought you told me you always keep a half diamond and other tools on you. Why didn't you pick the lock? We had to drive ten minutes to get to a restroom."
Matt looked sheepish, but defended himself. "Put yourself in my shoes. Would you break into your bosses' cabin? Especially if you were alone with their daughter?"
Lee and Amanda exchanged amused glances, but remained silent.
Sarah was mollified. "Yeah, I get that." She offered a silent apology to Matt, and ducked her head.
Lee sat back in the couch. "So what does all this have to do with your car? You were with Matt and he lost them."
Sarah told the story as she had related it to Francine and Gil Barclay at the Agency briefings. She started with her initial scare at the Metro station, when one of the men had almost followed her onto a train. Then she gave the details of running away from the watchful eye of the agents to the church, where Cheryl helped her escape from two of the cartel. The resulting car chase, where the two men were joined by other vehicles, ended with one driver in custody after Sarah forced him off the road. The others escaped after getting to the airport. Matt noticed that Sarah did not mention the Agency helicopter that was shot down—Rene had given him that detail when they had talked briefly the night before.
At first Lee and Amanda sat quietly in their seats, but by the end, they were leaning forward, doing their best to stay silent until she had finished. Lee had placed a hand on Sarah's shoulder—she was calm, but clearly it was difficult for her to talk about the incident.
Watching Sarah tell the story, Matt grew concerned about her. The brightness he had seen on her face earlier that morning had long since vanished. All this stress must be getting to her. He watched Sarah carefully. There were things he had overlooked yesterday in his enthusiasm at seeing her after ten days apart. She seems a bit thinner than she was before her parents and I went to Kazakhstan…
Amanda was the first to speak. "Oh Sarah. Thank God you're all right. Thank God Cheryl was there, and Jamie could come to help you. I'm so sorry we weren't there." Amanda got up and went to Sarah, squeezing onto the couch next to her so they could embrace. Lee put his arms around both women.
Matt looked down at the carpet for a moment. When he looked back up, they had broken apart.
There were tears in Lee's eyes. He wiped them away and caressed Sarah's hair thoughtfully. "Gil wanted to debrief you?"
"Yes. He, Francine, and Phillip all made a big deal out of my driving. Jamie was kind of mad at Phillip. Apparently he was showing the video to people and bragging."
Everyone chuckled at that. Finally, the tension in the room eased.
Matt looked at Lee. "I heard from Rene on the aftermath…"
"Yes, I'd like to hear—and I'd also like an explanation of why, even though we were on an op together, you never told me that you had your partner shadowing my daughter."
"I was in the dark about the whole thing at the Metro stop and the car chase. Rene never told me. I was just being careful. It was unofficial, as far as I was concerned. I didn't want to worry you."
Amanda spoke up. "I think it's time we all were a little more open around here. Everyone has secrets from everyone else. Stetson, I seem to recall you saying something to me once a long time ago about 'just another evening in the spy family.' It was a different situation, but 'spy family' sure fits us."
Lee laughed ruefully. "You would bring that up. I don't know how open we can always be, Amanda. I can see Matt's point, even though I still wish I had known what was going on. On the other hand, imagine if Matt had been worried about Sarah. Rene did the right thing…"
Amanda thought for a moment. "I suppose you're right." Amanda rested her palm against Sarah's cheek briefly. "I know this was upsetting for you—it must have been terribly frightening to have those men chasing you…"
"It was upsetting. But I dreaded telling you that I'd put myself in danger like that—and wrecked my car in the process. I hate disappointing you. Honestly, I've been pretty stressed out all week."
"Oh Sarah, it was foolish to run from the agents protecting you—I hope you've learned from your mistake. But those men put you in danger—you didn't do that. And as for disappointing us," Amanda looked past Sarah to Lee, "you have never done that. We love you. We've always been proud of you—and it sounds like you did a remarkable job with your driving. This is distressing to hear because you could have been taken from us. Not because you did anything wrong."
"Your mother is right. The first thing I thought when I saw your car was that I had put you in danger because of my job. I'm so sorry this happened, Pumpkin."
Matt had been sitting silently, anguished. "If anyone is at fault, it's me."
Everyone's eyes turned on him. Lee was the first to speak. "How so?"
"I didn't exercise due diligence. I was sloppy. Somehow they found the house." In an effort to control his emotions, Matt looked up at the ceiling for a moment before looking back at the Stetsons. "I'm so sorry."
"You don't know that they followed you here, Matt. From what you've told me, you did shake their tails—three times."
"There is no need for anyone to take the blame, here." Amanda directed her remarks to both Matt and Lee. "We don't have enough information to know why they followed Matt or Sarah in the first place. What's done is done. We need to move on. Let's concentrate on helping Sarah get through this." Amanda smiled reassuringly at Matt.
Matt sat back in his chair. Amanda was not sure he was fully convinced, but he did not say anything more.
Lee turned to his daughter. "Sarah, about your car. Have you called the insurance company?"
"No. I could tell it was a total loss. It's not worth much anymore, and both doors and side fenders are ruined—plus the taillight and part of the bumper. I thought I'd wait and ask you what to do."
"We really can't charge the Agency, since you aren't employed there. Besides, I'm not really the chief anymore, technically."
"What? When did this happen? You just got back…"
"Your mother and I are still employed by the Agency, but we're going into semi-retirement."
"Really?" Sarah was dumbfounded.
Matt was equally stunned. "If you don't mind my saying so, it didn't seem like you were retired in Kazakhstan."
"Yes. I'm sorry to spring it on you like this. We never had a chance to sit down and talk with you once we'd made the decision, Sarah. It all happened rather quickly before we left for Kazakhstan—even before that, I guess. We decided while we were at the Outer Banks that it was time to ease off on our workloads." Lee turned to Matt. "We wanted to wait until we were done with the op and all together like this before we told you."
Amanda was rueful. "But of course, more spy family secrets."
Rather than agree with her mother, Sarah put her arms around her father's waist and then hugged her mother. "It's about time. You both work—worked—way too hard."
"Yeah, well thanks for not saying anything about getting old, too." Lee stood up to stretch his legs and pace. "Sarah, back to the whole thing with your car." He paused to look over at Amanda, who nodded briefly. Matt wondered at the interchange.
"I'd—we would—like to help you get a replacement. We could go today." Lee glanced at the gym bag. "If you don't have other plans."
Sarah glanced over at Matt, who shrugged a little. Amanda smiled at the nonverbal communication.
"Daddy, I'd love to have you come along, but I'm supposed to be on my own now. You don't need to help me buy another car."
"No, I don't—but I would like to. But if you and Matt don't mind me hijacking your plans for the day, now would be a great time to go. I just need to clean up the driveway."
"We were going out to ride the horses, but this is more important. Perhaps Sarah and I can get together later."
"Nonsense. You're coming with us. You can help pick out the car."
Matt's eyes widened and he turned to Sarah. Lee went to the couch, where he took Amanda's hand and helped her up. As he went to the door, he said, "I'll let you know when I'm ready to go."
After Lee and Amanda went downstairs, Matt turned to Sarah. "Are you sure you want me to help you pick out the car? I'm not sure that's my place…"
"You may end up driving it at some point. Certainly I'm hoping you'll at least ride in it. It's a big decision and I think you should be included in it."
Matt wondered if Sarah—or Lee for that matter—expected them to get married sometime in the future. He knew he had dreams about it—in fact, he had spent some time thinking about it the night before, after he had called his parents. He had talked about Sarah with his parents several times, but last night he had confided in them about his deep feelings for her. He knew it was too soon to ask her. I'm not sure I'm ready for that, yet. They just want you to ask her to come with you to Texas at Thanksgiving. Stop fretting about this, Granger. She's not asking you to marry her. She's just asking you to help her pick out a car. This whole thing has been traumatic for her. God knows you were sick at the sight that Corolla.
He looked at Sarah, who was watching him expectantly. "Thank you, Sarah. It might be kind of fun." He smiled crookedly at her, but could not help glancing at the bag. "Your parents didn't say anything about my duffle…"
"They know you didn't stay overnight." Sarah closed the distance between them. "Thank you for being here this morning. It means so much to me…"
Matt took Sarah's hands in his. "I'm glad I could be here to support you, although I think your parents took the whole thing pretty well, once they figured out what happened." Matt looked down at their hands. "It was so hard not to take you in my arms and hold you when I saw that car."
Sarah looked up at Matt's face, then put her arms around his neck and reached up to kiss him. "I love you, Matt."
He returned the kiss. "I love you, too, Sarah. So much." He closed his eyes and held her tightly to him.
SMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMK
Amanda turned to Lee as he followed her into the house. Finally out of sight of Sarah, her calm demeanor had turned to one of anguish. "Lee, the cartel went after our daughter."
Lee embraced Amanda. "I know. Thank God Cheryl was there."
"It had already gone too far before that. They could have killed her in the church."
Lee didn't say anything. He pulled Amanda more tightly against him.
"You don't think they wanted to kill her, do you?"
Lee pulled back to look into Amanda's eyes. "No, I don't."
"Before you go car shopping, we need to find out what Francine knows. I want to be sure they won't go after her again."
"I feel the exact same way, Amanda." As they moved over to the couch in the den, Lee pulled his phone from his pocket and texted Francine. "I'm asking her to call me right away. I'll put it on speaker when she does."
"Lee, I think Sarah needs to see someone. She needs help working through this. This is the first time we haven't been there to support her through a crisis like this. It hasn't been that long since I was taken hostage, either. All this stress would be a bit much for even a trained agent."
"As much as I hate to say it, I think you're right about her needing to see someone. We should ask her to talk to Dr. Kirby."
"Perhaps we can talk with him on Monday…"
"Yeah. Maybe I shouldn't pressure her about the car right now…"
"Well, she does need to have something to drive. Do you really want to help Sarah pay for her car? Do you think she even knows what she wants?"
"I hope you don't mind that I went ahead and made that offer. You know that with Sarah's scholarships, we've hardly used any of that money my parents left me. The goal was to save it for all of our kids, not just Phillip and Jamie. Why can't she make use of some of it? There will still be plenty left over for other things—like a wedding or something."
At the mention of the word wedding, Amanda looked into Lee's eyes. "Are you starting to come around, Mr. Stetson? It was nice of you to insist that Matt join you."
"You know, I've come to like Matt an awful lot…"
"The poor guy hasn't proposed. I hope you aren't making any assumptions."
Lee ran a hand through his hair again. "Of course not. They haven't been together that long. I just can see where things are headed. It's like watching us all over again, sometimes—after I finally had the guts to tell you how I felt about you."
"Sarah is so much like you, Lee. When she looks at Matt, I'm seeing your expressions."
"Nah, she looks like you."
"She looks like both of us. She has your beautiful eyes." Amanda reached up to caress Lee's cheek.
Just then Lee's phone rang. He smiled at her and kissed the palm of her hand before answering it.
"Stetson here." Lee put the phone on speaker as they went to sit on the couch in the den.
"Welcome back, you two. Lee, I've decided to give you back your job."
"Very funny, Francine. Hello to you, too."
"We just heard Sarah's story—when were you planning to fill us in?"
"I thought it best to wait until you got back. And as for giving you back your job, you can blame your daughter for that. Thanks to her, I had an operation in Kazakhstan and a full-scale chase running through Chantilly at the same time."
"This wasn't her fault entirely." Lee grew defensive. "Are you really telling us that it happened at the same time as the op in Kazakhstan?"
"Yes. And no, it wasn't entirely Sarah's fault. She just pulled an old trick—I seem to remember you getting after your wife quite a number of times for not waiting in the car."
Lee raised his eyebrows and stared at Amanda, who avoided his gaze and directed her voice to Lee's phone. "Tell us the rest, Francine. What doesn't Sarah know?"
"They got away. There are still four of the original six men from the arms deal who are running around out there somewhere. There may have been a seventh at some point, but that information is unclear. We know that they managed to shoot down the helicopter that we used. It was enough of a distraction to allow their private jet to take off. At least no one was hurt."
"Any word on who owns the jet?" Lee was fighting the urge to pace.
"It was a rental. We did trace it to Monterrey. We already had agents from the Mexico bureau monitoring these guys, but we didn't make the connection until we had ID'ed them from our footage at Dulles."
"We heard about the footage of the chase. I expect Phillip will make sure we've seen it before the weekend is out."
"Yes, Sarah did an excellent job with her driving." Francine paused. "Lee, Amanda, that's not all."
Amanda looked up at Lee's face as she grasped his arm. Lee had not missed Francine's tone, either. His mouth was set in a grim line and Amanda watched the muscles of his cheek working. He spoke for the two of them. "Tell us."
"They're planning another run at Sarah." Francine hesitated for a moment, before continuing. "They are trying to get at the Agency by kidnapping the daughter of two of our higher profile employees."
Lee and Amanda were silent as they took in this news. Amanda gripped Lee's arm more tightly as Lee ground out his next words. "How did these b- How did they find out who she was in the first place?"
Francine did not hesitate. "We have a mole. Our agents in Monterrey—Carlos Mendez and Julia Garcia—managed to plant a bug at the table where they regularly meet. They overheard the Mexicans say they had a man giving them information about Sarah. I just heard about the mole today. I'm waiting to listen to the surveillance recording."
"Do you have any idea who it is?" Lee scowled. "Who's hurting for money?"
"Honestly, we have no clue. This came as a complete surprise."
"Who's the 'we' in all of this, besides you?"
"Phillip, Jamie, Wong, and Efraim. I haven't even told Enriquez or Gonzales and Johnson. Those are the agents most closely linked to this case. Tanaka and Smith were at the house when Sarah left for church, but they had been out of the loop until that point."
"I don't care. Keep an eye on them, too. It could be anybody. We can't trust anyone until we figure this out."
"Lee, Amanda, they said they are staying in Monterrey until we let our guard down. That buys us some time. When you come in for your debriefing on the Kazakh case, I'll need to meet with you and make up a plan."
Amanda broke in. "Shouldn't we involve Matt Granger in this?"
Francine did not answer immediately. "Are you absolutely sure that he isn't suspect? I think we need to leave him out of the loop for now."
"Francine, that's uncalled for. Matt is already receiving a commendation and a raise for his actions during the Birol case, and Lee wants to recommend him for another commendation for his work on the Kazakh case. He defused a bomb, nearly died from an overdose, and had to fake being gunned down. Clearly he's a dedicated agent and he's very protective of Sarah. I can't even fathom him being involved in a plot to kidnap her."
Lee sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Amanda, as much as I hate to say it, Francine is right. You do make several good points. In fact, I have learned to trust Matt and I'm pretty fond of the guy, but we all know we've been burned before."
"I don't have to like this."
Francine was apologetic. "Look, I'm sorry Amanda. I don't like it either. You know how it goes with moles. Remember what happened at Homeland recently."
Amanda remembered the case. One mole had been responsible for the deaths of five agents and three civilians.
"As soon as we can clear Matt, he needs to be in on this. Lee and I are walking a fine line by leaving him out of the loop. He and Sarah are quite serious, and I don't want to jeopardize our relationship with him. Besides, once we prove he is innocent, we will need his help."
"Amanda is right, Francine. We need to work on clearing Matt right away. Let us know if anything happens before we see you on Monday."
"I will. And for what it's worth, I'd like to think that Matt is who he appears to be. Sarah seems very happy. I never could figure out what she saw in Jeff."
"Don't get me started, Francine. Amanda's already shooting daggers at me with her eyes."
"Okay. See you Monday."