Zinoviev and his goons came running at the sound of gunshots and found Lee standing over Amanda's blood-spattered form, literally holding a smoking gun.
"You imbecile! What have you done?" hissed Zinoviev, back in Russian now. "I just promised her to Arcady for his own negotiations."
"I have made certain Scarecrow's life will never be the same," sneered Lee, "And I have my revenge. What do I care about Popov and his stupid arms deals?"
Zinoviev averted his eyes from the pool of blood that was seeping out from under Amanda. "And now what?" he asked in a voice that barely concealed his nausea.
"Now I shall go dump the body where it will cause the Agency the most possible public embarrassment," answered Lee, bending down and pulling Amanda off the floor and draping her across his shoulder, coughing to hide his laugh when Amanda couldn't resist slapping his butt lightly as she dangled down his back. "Perhaps on the steps of the Washington Post with a nice note. The Agency will be destroyed when the press finds out their government is willing to abandon its citizens." He turned to the door and began to walk out with her. "I suggest you leave town while you still can. I will make my own arrangements through my network, once I pay back a few debts to those who betrayed me."
It was almost surreal the way Zinoviev never questioned any of it, so horrified by being this close to actual violence for once in his life that he simply followed Lee upstairs and out the back door to where the blue van was still parked. He even opened the van's back doors helpfully and watched as Lee rolled Amanda off his shoulder and into the back of the van before stepping back and starting to close the doors.
"You are even more cold-blooded than I realized," he remarked, shaking his head. "I have underestimated you, Rostov."
"I am often underestimated," agreed Lee with a dark chuckle. "It is what has made me so successful up until now." He walked to the front of the van, turning to Zinoviev with a grim smile. "We part here. Thank you for getting me away from the Americans. I will make sure you are recommended for a proper reward."
"Thank you," replied Zinoviev with a small bow of the head. "It was my duty, and my pleasure."
Just at that moment, the night came alive as what appeared to be a hundred agents suddenly came charging from every direction. Before Lee knew what was happening, he'd been thrown to the ground and someone was kneeling on his back, handcuffing him. "What the hell are you doing?" he yelled, struggling to get away.
"Shut it, Comrade," the agent sitting on him snarled. "Or you'll get a taste for real American justice. You should have thought twice before you did that to Mrs. King."
Lee turned his head to respond to that just in time to see Zinoviev make a break for it. "Stop him!" he yelled. Of course none of the agents listened to him, but as usual, they didn't need to. Lee watched appreciatively as Amanda who was scrambling out of the van took in the situation in an instant and simply stuck her foot out to trip him as he went by. Zinoviev went flying, landing face first and skidding along the gravel before two agents leapt forward to pin him.
"That'll teach you not to underestimate little sparrows," she scolded him. She turned to look for Lee, her eyes widening with shock as she saw him pinned as well.
"Oh no! Don't do that!" she cried out, running toward him and trying to pull off the agent who was restraining him. "That's not a bad guy!"
"Stockholm Syndrome," Lee heard one agent mutter to another as she struggled to rescue him. "Poor thing – she's only been gone a few hours and they already got to her."
"I do NOT have Stockholm Syndrome!" said Amanda hotly. "That's Lee Stetson you're sitting on, you dummy!"
"Now, now, Mrs. King, you know Lee Stetson is on vacation in Bermuda," said the man sitting on him in what he no doubt thought was a soothing tone. "Come look, this guy doesn't look anything like him." He reached to grab the back of Lee's head to pull him up for her to look, then leaping to his feet screaming when the hair piece came free in his hand, leaving him holding what he thought was Lee's scalp.
Amanda knelt to help Lee roll over and sit up, then began working at peeling off the prosthetics. "Come on, let's get this stuff off you before someone else thinks you're not you and shoots you or something," she said, sparing a sideways glare for the hapless agent who was looking even more green as she apparently pulled Lee's face off. "And you can just take those handcuffs off him too!" she ordered in a voice that no boy, large or small, would disobey.
"Yes Ma'am," answered the agent, pulling out a key and starting to undo them. "Sorry, Scarecrow," he muttered, sotto voice "I thought she was crazy."
"I heard that," Amanda commented sternly as she continued to take off the make-up. Only Lee saw the small wink she gave him as he began rubbing his wrists to relieve the pain from the cuffs.
"Well, you are a little bit crazy," he grinned at her. He poked a finger at his eye and pulled the blue contacts out so that he could see more clearly.
"And whose fault is that?" she shot back as they both stood up and looked around. "I think I was perfectly normal before I was friends with you."
"Well, I feel like I spent a lot less time flat on the floor before I was friends with you," he countered, making her snort with laughter.
There was some sort of commotion at the foot of the driveway and suddenly Francine was charging toward them, Efraim following at a more leisurely pace with Billy and Leatherneck.
"Are you okay?" she immediately asked Amanda, looking horrified at the apparent bloodstains all over her. "What did they do after they took me away?"
"I'm fine," Amanda answered quickly. "None of this is real. Lee just had to shoot me."
"Of course he did," commented Francine. "Scarecrow always has to show off." The way she absently reached to pat him on the cheek said she didn't mean it and the way he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and hugged her into his side said he knew it.
"How did you get the cavalry here so fast?" asked Lee, glancing around at the swarming crowd of agents who were leading more people in handcuffs out of the house.
"We didn't," grinned Efraim. "We were just zeroing in on your location when all this happened." He waved at the mayhem, then turned to look at Billy questioningly. "I thought your hands were tied?"
"Thankfully, we were unleashed by a higher power," Billy chuckled. "So we were all working our CI's and got a tip about where Zinoviev might be hiding out," he began to explain. "That got us close enough that our radios started picking up on your homing beacon since it's Agency issue." He paused and shot a look at an unrepentant Leatherneck before going on. "And we were going to be a lot less noisy than this, but then we saw someone carrying what we thought was Amanda's dead body out of the house and I couldn't rein any of them in after that." He looked around, a small smile tugging at his lips. He whistled as Popov was frogmarched past and looked at Lee. "You certainly hit the mother lode on the Most Wanted list, didn't you? That'll make it easier for me to smooth the ruffled feathers at the way you went about this."
"Wonderful," replied Lee sarcastically. "I wouldn't want to get in trouble with Internal Affairs again."
Billy knew Lee was angry and knew too that he had every reason to be, so decided it was best to let him calm down before they had to discuss his vigilante tactics. "Why don't you take an Agency car and get Amanda home and then you can both come in and debrief in the morning? My office, Scarecrow, 9:00 a.m. sharp."
"Yes, Sir!" Lee snapped a mock salute and clicked his heels together. "Come on, Amanda, let's go before he changes his mind – your mother and the boys are probably frantic with worry and you should have been home hours ago." His hand slipped into its now-customary spot in the small of her back as he began to guide her away.
The pointed look he shot at Billy as he said it didn't bode well for that meeting in the morning, but Billy let it go without response.
"Good night, Amanda," he said gently. "I'm sorry you got caught up in all this."
"Good night, Sir" she answered, stopping in her tracks and shooting a worried glance at the way Lee was glaring. "Are you sure you don't need us to stay?"
"I'm sure," Billy comforted her. "Everything will keep until tomorrow. Now go home to your family; Lee's right, they've been worried."
Amanda bit her lip, still feeling like she should do something to break the mood, worried that she'd been the cause of a fight between the two men, but then Lee's hand pressed into her back again.
"Come on, Kid," he muttered in a gruff tone. "You heard the man, time to go home."
The desire to do that was too overwhelming for Amanda to resist. With one last apologetic look at Billy, she let Lee guide her away.