XXV

Kate had called him as he was just finishing up bandaging his flesh wound. His cell chimed with a text at first asking him if it was safe for her to call. He replied that she could. His phone rang and he answered it on the first ring.

"Kate, are you okay?"

There was nothing but silence on her end.

"Kate? Talk to me."

"I'm here Rick."

He heard it immediately. The conflict in her voice. He was sure it was one of two things that could have torn her apart like this. Accepting her mother as being among the living, or completely shutting her out of her life all together.

"Kate what's wrong. Are you okay?"

"Rick, I'm torn. I really want her to tell me why she has been gone for all this time even with the urging of your mother to see her side of her story, but then there's a part of me that wants to forget that this ever happened. What do I do?"

Rick thinks as he ties off the bandage off around his arm. He has a suggestion to give her but he doesn't want to push her into something that she might regret.

"Kate, you have to know that I am in love with you, right?"

"I know." Kate replies in a small and shy voice.

"So, what I think you should do is listen to your heart. It's always helped me in situations like this."

"Babe, my brain tells me one thing and my heart is telling me another."

Babe? When did we start using terms of affection? I like it, though.

"Well in that case, listen to both and then decide. If you don't like what she's telling you just step away."

"Okay. So, are you alright?" Kate wanted to know.

"Kate, I was hit in the arm during the attack here at the loft. I was not hit that badly, it's only a flesh wound."

"I'm coming back there. You're hurt and I can help you!" Kate insisted.

Rick knew that she was stalling. She did not want to talk to her mother. So, he quickly told her,

"Kate, there's no need for you to break your cover. You need to resolve your situation there first. Now I need you to listen to me. We have intel that there is a second and third set of teams out there. One is searching for you and the other will try to stop us from finding the bombs here in the city."

"Okay, do they have any idea where we went?"

"No, I don't think they do. You left before they arrived. So, they won't know how or when you left. Are you armed?"

"I have my Glock and my back up .40 cal." She told him.

"How many mags do you have and are my mother and your mother armed as well?"

"I have 2 extra mags for each of my weapons and… hold on a second."

Rick heard Kate cover the receiver with her hand and ask his mother if she was armed, then nothing. She came back about 5 seconds later and told him that his mother only had her service weapon with no extra ammo, but her mother had packed a pair of Glock 19's with one extra mag for each.

"Kate keep them safe. If anyone can do this, it's you."

"I will Rick. Call me when it's safe to come back to the city."

"I will. I've got to go. I'll call you tomorrow. I love you Kate."

"I love you too. Bye Rick."

He ended the call and hoped that she could at least talk to her mother. He walked back out to the living room and met Mike and Eric. Mike was just finishing up the fine tuning of the radiation detectors. As he walked up to the pair Mike explained what they needed to do.

"Rick, I have tweaked these detectors to be accurate within 50 feet of the plutonium's source. The only problem I can figure on is that if these guys are smart, they'll mask the dirty bombs with an outside radiation source. Like a hospital or a small reactor."

"So, this will be harder for us to detect?"

"Not necessarily. Our hope is that they are caught out in the open and when we find them we can coordinate with the NYPD or the FBI move in and secure the bombs."

"Mike that's all fine and well, but what if these guys have a death wish and are able to detonate the device before we can get personnel in place to take the down?" Eric asked.

"Then, it's out of my hands. I can tell you that these devices will be very small and very portable in nature."

"So we need to look for a back pack of some kind?" Rick asked.

"That would be my guess, they would blend in with the pedestrian public and not look that suspicious." Mike added.

"Alright, let's get out a city map and start reducing possible targets. Time is getting to a critical point now." Rick said.

They all gather around the map and eliminate the less obvious targets and concentrate on more political and military targets.

Xx

Kate cautiously walked over to Martha and asks her,

"Martha, do you think that she'll answer my questions honestly?"

"Kathryn, she's your mother. She might be a spy, but she still loves you. My advice, if you choose to take it is to go easy on her. Ease into your questions. Try not to inundate her with the harder questions at first."

Kate begins to walk towards her mother and as she does so, she thinks about what to ask her. Deciding to use Martha's suggestion, she starts off with easy questions first. She taps Johanna on her shoulder as she sits down across from her.

"What's on your mind, Katie?"

"Well mom, first I think that I've outgrown the name, Katie. I know that that's how you remember me, but now I'm an adult. So please call me Kate."

"Okay, Kate. So, do you feel like talking to me now?"

"Mom, don't patronize me. You were the one who decided to leave dad and me. Have you ever thought about what your leaving could have done to him? What you did to me?"

"Katie sorry, Kate, I had been recruited into the CIA and when I was, everything that had been connected to in my old life was now just a memory. My identity was erased. Everything I had been able to accomplish prior to my "death" my law degree, all the cases that I'd won and lost were removed from the records even the classes at NYU were cleared from the records."

"Was it all worth it?"

"Kate, it's not like that. Every day I was gone all I could think about was you and your father. Then after a while of being away, I wondered if this was all worth it. I mean I was doing a job that was saving lives. But after a while it had become mundane."

"Mundane? Do you realize how that sounds? We thought you were dead, Dad started to drink and heavily. He was lost. It had taken him 7 years to finally start to live again. I don't think that he will be as forgiving as I am, if he even wants to see you."

"I know that what I did was an insult and even a mistake to both of you. If I could take it all back I would. But I can't. So, we need to move forward from here. Do you think that's possible?"

"I'm not sure. It will take a while before I am able to forgive you for this."

"I understand."

Kate got up and walked to the fridge to see if there was any bottled water there. After she was in the kitchen Martha walked up to her friend.

"So, how did it go?" She asked.

"Martha, I know damn well that you were eavesdropping."

"Yeah so? What are your thoughts?"

"I think that I have a lot to make amends for and it won't be easy, especially with Kate. She's just like her father, when she gets an opinion in her head it takes a lot for her to work through it."

Martha just looks at her shaking her head.