Part 4

Ezra Standish was now Evan Brooks and focused completely on staying in character. Knocking lightly on the ornate wooden door he entered without waiting for a response.

"Morning Evan." Jack Desmond sat at his desk going over yet another pile of paper work.

"Morning Jack," the southerner drawled. "Brought you your morning coffee."

"Thank you." He waved for Ezra to set it on the desk.

"How is it going?" Ezra asked sitting in a chair across from the older man.

"It's about all set." Jack sipped his coffee and smiled. "Ahhh the day is never right without that first cup of coffee."

Ezra grinned and nodded his agreement.

"I've heard from the Smiths," Jack continued laughing. "You'd think a family so involved in illegal arms would have a more creative name," he said distractedly. "Anyway, I need you to run some errands and help get some things ready."

'Fine," Ezra nodded. "Where is the exchange going to take place?"

"Ware house 7 at Desmond Enterprises. David's already getting the 'details' ready."

"When will this happen?"

"Soon."

"Alright then. What do you want me to do first?"

"Well first, "Jack frowned. "First I need to talk to you about something I'm very concerned about."

Ezra waited for him to continue.

"Have you ever heard of a Chris Larabee?"

Ezra was careful to show no reaction to his boss' name.

"Not that I recall. Why do you ask?" Inside his head alarms were blaring. 'Is my cover blown?' he wondered.

"He's a local ATF man. Has a pretty good team under him. I think he has a man on the inside."

"Inside?" Ezra showed genuine concern.

Jack sighed and tossed a pen onto the desk. "Yeah, and I have no idea if it's one of my men or one of Smith's. Call me paranoid but," he paused a moment. "I just wanted to warn you to keep your ears and eyes open. Whoever he is, he is good. " He picked up a paper from the desk and handed it to Ezra. "Here's what I need done from you today. I'll text you if anything else comes up." Ezra nodded and rose to go.

"Keep me informed Evan."

"I will." With the office door closed behind him Ezra paused a minute to collect himself. 'I need to let Chris know what's happening,' he thought. 'And keep my cover safe at the same time.' This was one job he'd worked hard on and did not want anything to mess it up. He knew the guys were depending on him for information. He just hoped they remembered that he was depending on them to get him out of this mess if it went awry.

"Chris!" J.D. shouted from his desk. "Chris!"

"What are you shouting about kid?" Buck asked rubbing his ears.

"We have word from Ezra!" J.D. was excited.

"What does he say?" Chris asked coming out of his office. Vin, Josiah and Nathan hovered near by to hear what was going on.

"It says 'ware house 7 Desmond enterprises, day and time to come. Desmond suspicious. So far so good, being careful. Ez'," J.D. read out loud.

"Damn," Chris' anger flared. He didn't want to have to worry about Ezra's cover but it sounded shaky and it was way to late to pull him out now with out scraping the whole case.

"He's being real cautious," Nathan pointed out the unusually short message.

" I just hope he can get us the day and time," Vin commented.

"He'll get it," Chris said confidently.

"We already know he's dealing with the Smiths," Josiah said. "Nathan and I will look into their activity. See what else we can find out."

"Go," Chris nodded. "Be ready for anything," he added. He glanced at his watch. "Damn," he swore again. "I gotta go to the police station."

"Why?" Vin asked.

"Filing a report on yesterday morning. Meeting Kara there."

"Kara is it?" Buck asked grinning.

"Yeah it is. Now get to work. J.D. call me if there is anything else from Ezra."

"Yes sir." J.D. smiled but wisely remained silent about Buck's comment on Kara.

"I'm tagging along," Vin said.

Chris nodded his acceptance of the sharpshooters decision and headed for the door.

Kara entered the police station nervously. She wasn't sure if she was hyped up about the interview or about seeing Chris again, maybe both. She spotted Larabee in the hallway immediately, but there was someone with him. She instantly recognized the man as one of the agents in the picture of the fishing trip.

"Kara, how are you this morning?" Chris asked as she approached.

"A bit nervous I guess." She looked from Chris to Vin.

"This is my friend Vin Tanner," Chris introduced them.

"Nice to meet you," Kara murmured taking Vin's outstretched hand.

"Nice to meet you too, ma'am."

Kara smiled at the Ma'am. Vin Tanner. Well now she could match one face and name together.

Vin watched Kara as she interacted with Chris. It was obvious, even to him, that she was very interested in his boss. He wondered if Chris had a clue.

Chris led Kara into one of the offices where they were to be interviewed about the day before just to clear up anything the police needed information on. Vin knew it was very routine but he could also understand Kara's nervousness.

The process didn't take long and soon Chris and Kara were back in the hall with him. Together the trio walked to the exit.

"Chris? Can I ask you a favor? " Kara broached the subject hesitantly as they were stepping outside the building.

"Sure."

"Well, I was wondering, I want to keep running but… um… well, I'm not sure how easy it's gonna be to go alone. I was wondering if you would want to run together in the mornings? Since you run there anyway and all…" her voice trailed off as she looked up at him.

"Yeah, that would be fine," Chris agreed. "I mean there are days I won't be able to make it but I'd be happy to run with you."

"You would? Oh thank you. I mean it won't be forever, just until I kind of get my courage up again ,you know. Thank you!" She gave him a quick hug and started toward her car. "Oh and it was nice to meet you, Mr. Tanner," she called back.

Chris looked at Vin to find him grinning. "Don't even start," he muttered as they climbed into the truck.

"What? I was just thinking what a gentleman you are is all." Vin tried not to laugh.

"Oh shut up," Chris growled pulling out into traffic.

"What's this?" Vin picked up the framed picture that Chris had forgotten to take into the office.

"Something for my office. There's a double there if you want it."

"I don't see one." Vin looked through the stack of files.

"Huh, thought for sure it was there, "Chris glanced quickly as he tried to keep an eye on the road. "Must have left it at the ranch."

Kara collapsed onto her couch and laughed out loud. It had been a wonderful day! She had spent most of it, following her trip to the police station, in front of the computer trying to match identities of the agents of team 7 to the picture she had. She knew Chris, of course, and Vin Tanner now. She hadn't found much but she had gotten all their names and was pretty sure from what she had to go on that she could match the rest of the names and faces. She hoped anyway. As if Jack could read her thoughts her cell phone rang. She checked the number but didn't recognized it.

"This is Kara."

"Hello, Jack asked me to call and check on your progress."

Whoever he was, he had a charming accent.

"Who are you?" her curiosity got the best of her.

"This is Evan Brooks. I work for Jack, obviously."

"Obviously," Kara smiled "Sorry I just didn't recognize your voice. Jack hasn't introduced my to all of his associates yet."

"I can imagine."

"Tell Jack I'm still working on it. He'll know what I mean."

"He seemed anxious for your information."

"Yeah, tell him not to worry." She hung up quickly to avoid any more questions.

Ezra pressed the end button on his cell phone and wondered what information Jack was after from this woman. He couldn't dwell on it at the moment though. He was needed at the warehouse and hoped he could get some idea of when this deal with the Smiths was going down. More then anything his main concern was not letting the team down.

Kara woke up early, excited about her run with Chris. Smiling she slipped on a sweatshirt and hurried to the living room. She pulled the picture of Chris' team off the bulletin board and scurried back to the warmth of her bed. She couldn't seem to tear herself away from the picture as she memorized each face one more time. Strange though, when she focused on one man, she seemed to see them all. It was like they were a single being. Tracing her finger lightly over Chris she moved to Vin. There was a definite connection there. She had felt it when they were at the police station.

"Damn," she flopped back onto her pillow. "If I reveal Chris' man to Jack." She looked at the picture again. It would be like betraying Chris, but if she didn't... "Jack will kill me." she whispered.

An hour later Kara was getting out of her car. Chris was already there, she had seen his truck when she pulled in. She spotted him immediately warming up and stretching by the trail. The morning sun seemed to turn his light hair to gold. He saw her and waved.

"Morning Kara, how are you doing?"

"Okay, ready to run." She grinned as she started stretching. "I hope I don't slow you down to much."

"Don't worry about it, ready?"

She nodded and they started out on the path. Chris knew he should be focusing more on Kara but his mind was completely caught up in the Desmond case. There had been no word from Ezra since an email the afternoon before, giving them the location of the deal. Josiah, Nathan and Vin where already setting up in the area while Buck and J.D. covered the communications. Now all that was left was to wait. He hated waiting, hated worrying about the team but couldn't seem to help it.

He noticed suddenly that Kara had slowed down.

"You okay?" He turned towards her, jogging backwards. Kara nodded but looked ahead. They were about to enter the wooded area where she had been grabbed. She was surprised that she felt real hesitation, it was almost fear.

"Hey, come on. You're safe with me." Chris took her hand and gently pulled her along, squeezing reassuringly as they entered the woods. They made it through without stopping and Kara felt her fear fading. She could do this. She could do anything with Chris Larabee by her side. She smiled genuinely at Chris to let him know that she was fine and let go of his hand so he could run at his own speed. He hadn't gotten more then ten feet in front of her when her cell went off. She stopped to check it. It was Evan's number again. Must be Jack wanted something. She didn't know how she was going to tell Desmond that she didn't know who was undercover yet.

"Chris!" She called after him. He stopped short and ran back his eyes filled with concern.

"Sorry to cut this short,"she apologized. "I have to go. An emergency must have come up at work," she motioned to her phone.

"Okay."

"Thank you for this morning." She stepped closer and Chris thought she was going to hug him again. Instead she put her arms around his neck, entwined her fingers in his hair and pulled him in to kiss her. Caught off guard he didn't have time to even pull away before she pulled back, turned and ran to her car leaving him staring after her.

His mind shattered for a moment."What the hell?" He wondered. Before he could think about it more, his phone rang.

"Larabee," he answered

"Just got word from Ezra." It was J.D. and he was virtually yelling. "The trade is happening in less then two hours!"

"I'll meet you there. Get everyone in position." Chris commanded. He swore as he ran to his truck. They were cutting it too close. He hoped Vin, Josiah and Nathan were inside the warehouse already.

Kara called Evan from her car. "Evan? What's happening?"

"The deal is going through and Jack wants you there."

"Makes sense, where?"

"You're to meet me at Jack's place."

"I need to change quick but I'll be there in twenty."

"I'll be waiting out front."

Kara broke a few traffic laws on the way home, showered, changed and was on her way out the door in record time. She paused only a minute to look again at the bulletin board. She scanned each face on more time though she knew them all by heart.

"What do I do Chris?" She whispered as she closed the apartment door and headed for her car. She knew if Chris had a man inside Jack's operation she would spot him as soon as she walked in. That was the whole reason Jack insisted on her being there. Could she betray Larabee and turn his man over to Desmond? Could she defy Desmond and risk his wrath? She had no idea what she was going to do.