D'Artagnan paced Anne's kitchen, clenching and unclenching his fists. "I have a plan," he said. "Milady and her group want us to be shown in action. For that they need a threat. Well, I'd say there is a threat. A pretty serious one too. I'd say that, some time tomorrow, there's going to be a very definite threat."
He spun on his heel and faced Athos. "Milady used me and the Minister to get at our plans and now she's back, cooking up plots with the Prime Minister himself." Aramis flinched, and Anne shook her head at him. D'Artagnan said, "She's assuming we will fail, despite having been tipped off. She's setting us up for a fall, and the messages have become part of that fall. So let's turn the tables. "They've set dates, given deadlines. This gives them plenty of time to create whatever it is they're planning, and find out our own plans. They've bugged our building, right?"
Constance nodded. Aramis turned to Anne in sudden understanding, but her face was set in a professional mask.
D'Artagnan said, "So lets make our own timetable. They aren't expecting us to put anything into place until Dog Leap on Sunday, so let's move today. Let's roll out everything we've got for a full on terrorist attack, a week early. We'll steal their plan, falsify an attack, come out heroes."
Anne blinked.
"Not bad," said Aramis.
"The last vote is tonight," said Athos. "We can't act until after it."
D'Artagnan frowned. "Lord Delafere," he said slowly.
"Sits in the House of Lords," said Constance, coming to stand beside Athos. She smiled at him, and Athos nodded. D'Artagnan experienced a jab of irrational jealousy.
"You're changing the law," he said to Anne. "That's the mission. It's not about protecting the pylons at all."
Anne remained still.
"Classified," said Porthos, with a wink.
"And it is about, as you put it, protecting the pylons," said Anne. "More powers are needed. Autonomy."
"Then we should take them," said D'Artagnan "Declare a national emergency."
"They'll discredit the threat," said Athos. "Milady will expose the messages as fake."
"Then I will expose the PM as her employer," said Anne.
"We'll need help," Porthos said. "More bodies at strategic positions. Just in case."
Anne said, "Then find help. You are uniquely qualified to do so." Porthos nodded. "And take D'Artagnan," she added. "It will keep him out of mischief while I think."
She gazed around at them all. "Are you with me?" she whispered. "Will you do this for me, for our country?"
Athos exchanged glances with Aramis and Porthos. Then abruptly he dropped to one knee on the tiled kitchen floor and took Anne's hand. "We will do whatever you command," he said in a low voice. He put his lips lightly to her knuckles.
Anne bit her lip, then drew him upright. "Thank you," she said. "I will try to deserve such loyalty." Porthos gave an upwards nod of support.
Aramis, when she turned to him, was staring rather hard at Athos. "Go home," Anne said to Constance. "We start as soon as Athos has cast his vote."
"Right, said Constance. She blinked, like someone finally waking from an awful night. So. It's Dog Leap tomorrow," Constance said.
Anne shook her head. "No. It's Finisterre. And we're making our own end of the world."
The others filed out, but at the front door Anne lay her hand on Aramis' shoulder. Porthos glanced back and then continued on, hustling D'Artagnan away down the street. "Not you," Anne said to Aramis.
He raised one eyebrow.
"You stay," Anne said, and closed the front door.
"I'll check your doors and windows," Aramis said, moving with his usual swift grace toward the lounge.
"No," said Anne. "I'm as safe or as endangered as I have always been." She smiled painfully. "I just wanted ... to stop lying. Stop hiding."
Aramis waited. She wore her private face, her vulnerable face, but the professional one was trying to get out, to cover her up, to protect her. He stood rooted to the spot, desire battling professional duty.
"With you," Anne said, "I can't pretend."
She turned her eyes up to him and it was all the permission Aramis needed. He crossed the space between them in one step, and took her in his arms. He did not waste time with insincere protestations about her husband, her job. "Anne," he said, and kissed her.
She had imagined his kiss would be hard and strong, a soldier's embrace, and it was, but also there was delicacy, tenderness, a reverent hesitation in his caress which made her shiver. She closed her eyes, and in spite of her job, his job, how dangerous she knew him to be, in spite of the fact that he was a stranger, she knew that she was safe at last.