So Joan was taking her back. Lucky her. She didn't believe much of what Joan had said. There was at least a 50-50 chance that Eyal was twenty feet away, in another bed in the secure medical unit, and that Joan had just used his imprisonment and torture as a ruse to make sure she could extract whatever information she wanted. Annie felt an adrenalin-fueled fury rise up in her at that, but she knew it was the way their world worked. Getting angry at Joan was probably not the wisest thing she could do, not for any of them. She'd need the agency behind her – or at least, not actively opposed to her – to allow her to re-enter the empty quarter and retrieve her child.

But first, she had to verify that Eyal was not lying somewhere nearby, half or three-quarters dead, possibly the last time she might ever be able to see him, to tell him, once more and with no equivocation, that she loved him.

There was the little problem of being tied to the bed – despite Joan's visit, now hours ago, she had not been released and the guard, dismissed during the debrief, had returned to his chair. Annie knew that his shift would be ending soon, the only moments when she was truly alone, when he stepped outside the door to do the handoff, describing her condition, her alertness, her potential for trouble. Well, that potential was going to be severely underestimated on this shift change conference.

Her feet were not bound. But she had not spent several months entertaining Laylah and Hejra with impromptu yoga lessons in the women's tent for nothing. Freed of the baby, she wasn't afraid to strain the limits of her flexibility, and that included flexing her agile little toes.

The shift change came. With barely a look at her – she'd feigned napping for what seemed like hours – the guard got up and went to the door. As was his usual, he stepped outside of it and let it all-too-slowly shut on the automatic closer. As soon as it clicked, Annie sprang into action – or at least, her legs and feet did. Raising her foot back toward her at an angle, she managed to grab the edge of the Velcro restraint in between her big toe and the next toe, and with an effort, managed to peel it free, hoping the distinctive noise of Velcro being pulled apart would not alert her guards. With her now-freed hand, she reached over and undid her other wrist.

Just as the door began to open and the new guard arrived to take his place on the chair, she managed to return to her feigning-napping posture. If the nurses were keeping to the regular schedule, she'd have about twenty-five minutes before a room check. She wanted to wait until the previous guard was well away – she didn't know what she'd be facing in the corridor and one less adversary was just that – one less to deal with.

If Eyal were nearby, he'd probably be even more heavily guarded than she was, but the presence of guards would at least tell her where he was. And she didn't think they'd fire at her immediately, a small blonde woman coming at them in a dorky hospital gown – she would have the benefit of the doubt for about a second before she made it clear she was a threat, and that might be enough to get through a room door … if it wasn't locked. If his condition was severe, it might not be. She realized every flaw and possible problem in her plan, but if he was nearby, she had to do it; even so, keeping quiet, "being good", might enable her to get back to Arabia with CIA help and search for their child – that was the only thing that gave her pause.

But she couldn't think that way. Joan had made it clear that she probably would not support such a quest, which she'd see as useless. Right now, she wanted – needed – to see him. Why wasn't he cooperating? Did he possibly not know what that could mean to him? Annie cleared her mind of such thoughts. She'd made her decision. Now it was time to execute it. She waited for her new guard to settle in.

Joan watched the satellite footage that Auggie had uploaded for her on her cellphone. She ran through it seeral times. A single vehicle leaving behind a dark-garbed figure on the ground near a small building. The churned-up dust rising behind the vehicle as it sped away, very fast since Auggie had sped up the footage. The miles and miles of desert track covered in a few seconds.

Then, the sudden shift as the vehicle, for no apparent reason, made an abrupt move and rolled. The obscuring dust. She stepped it back. Possibly, those were the tiny plumes of dust from shots fired and just missing the vehicle. Possibly, it had hit one of the smaller land mines or IEDs. Dust obscured everything. Were those figures running toward the wreckage, or just some anomaly from the smoke and dust? Because there was smoke now, black and billowing.

Since the satellite had not been programmed to watch this particular event, it moved off, leaving all the possible questions unanswered.

Joan clicked through to Auggie. "I've watched the footage."

"Yes?"

She stepped back to the moment when the jeep had suddenly changed its trajectory, just to see it one more time.

"I know this will be hard for you. But whatever you do, don't tell Annie."

There was silence on the other end of the line.

"Remember when I said we didn't know what happened with her? When it looked as if she must be lying dead on the road outside that clinic?"

She heard Auggie exhale. "Yes, I remember. Believe me, I remember."

"This is the same thing. We don't know. But the important thing is, she can't know. There's too much riding on this. Do you understand?"

There was an inarticulate noise from Auggie's end.

"That's not good enough, Auggie. You will not tell Annie anything about this footage, including the mere fact that it exists. Do you understand? Do I have to make it a specific order, Auggie? Because I will if I have to. Do you understand?"

There was another pause. "I understand. I don't like it much, but I've got it."

"Hear you on that one, " Joan replied. Joan was ready to click off. Then she thought again.

"You understand and agree not to tell her?"

That pause was longer. He knew she had him in the crosshairs. "Yeah, I agree," Auggie rasped, his voice roughening under the stress. "I won't tell her that it's almost 100% certain that her baby is dead. Because you asked me not to, Ma'am." He didn't add "and because it's the last thing on earth I'd like to be saying to her." but Joan heard those words without him speaking them - and had no doubt that was the only reason he'd keep quiet if there was even a .001 chance that the child still lived.

Now the long and silent pause was on Joan's end. Oh Annie, she thought. I hope you forgive me for this one, she added, and the words were closer to a prayer than a request. She took a deep breath. "Thanks, Auggie."