A/N: I'm back! Thanks for your patience during the off week. As I mentioned some time ago, some chapters might come more slowly, especially when the family moves from one city to the next. There's a significant amount of research I do for each city in an attempt to make this story as authentic as possible. That means I spend hours examining train timetables, studying Google Maps and reading travel websites to figure out where the family should stay, where the Buy More should be located, forms of local transportation and what sightseeing they can do given their circumstances. The load for this and the next chapter has doubled with Vienna and Salzburg coming so close together. All that is to say I can't promise there will be a chapter posted next week. If I won't be posting next week—or any Thursday for that matter—I always put something about its status on my blog, so you can check there if you want. Again, thanks for your patience and understanding.
Thank you, too, of course for the wonderful reviews, comments, tweets, etc. I'm thrilled and amazed that this story is approaching 900 reviews. I'm grateful to each and every one of you who have taken the time to leave reviews and let me (and AgentInWaiting) how much you're enjoying the story, things you liked, questions you have, words of encouragement and conjecture on what's to come. Hearing from you is really wonderful, so again, thank you.
Thank you to AgentInWaiting, my hard working teammate, who spends plenty of time of his own double checking my research and fixing my many typos and dodgy grammar.
For AdmiralK, AgentInWaiting, mxpw, and Ziohenry.
Chapter 35 – Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
Sarah stared out the window and watched the green countryside flash past as the train sped southeast toward Vienna. Her eyes remained fixed on a farmhouse, tiny in the distance, until it disappeared from view. As she took in the scenery, she turned over in her mind the family meeting they'd had that morning before leaving for the train station. The older kids at first had rolled their eyes and given Chuck a hard time about another one of his lame family meetings. Their teasing quickly ended when they read the serious look on his face. They'd sobered immediately and once the kids were seated, Sarah stood next to Chuck, their hands firmly laced, as he told them that while their aunt had been held captive, she'd learned that their grandparents had died a few years before. He gave them a few details of when and where it happened, a little on how and none on who had been behind it. The older kids had been stoic, the only outward evidence of inward turmoil were glassy eyes and clenched jaws. Martie and Megan, obviously unsure how to respond, sat quietly, their gazes darting from face to face as they tried to decipher all that was going on and how they should react.
In the end, it had been Lizzie, who spoke up first, telling Chuck that while she was sad that she would never get to know her grandparents, she was mostly sad for Chuck and the loss he had to be feeling. Tears welled in Sarah's eyes again, just as they had then.
Blinking back the wetness, she gazed on a puffy white cloud hovering above a tree-covered hill and returned her mind to the report she was in the middle of writing for Director Graham. Laptop open in front of her, she couldn't help but think back on not only the events in Prague, but over everything that had taken place during their trip across Europe during the previous two weeks. Between catching a Fulcrum agent and his anarchist associate in London, securing a rogue bioweapon in Paris, gaining intel about Benoit from Carina in Amsterdam, making a serious decision about expanding their family in Berlin and being kidnapped and rescued in Prague—all the while sightseeing and competing in Call of Duty tournaments—they'd certainly been having an eventful time. Given that they were on tap for another mission in Austria, it was almost a given that the "eventful" parts of their trip wasn't likely to change any time soon.
The sound of rapidly clicking keys coming from Chuck's computer stopped suddenly and she felt him bump her shoulder. "Earth to Sarah," Chuck said in monotone. "Come in, Sarah."
His words pulled her from her musings and drew her attention back inside the train car. Smiling at a chuckling Lizzie directly across from her, she said, "Sorry. I got to thinking about some of the rather unusual adventures we've had over the past two weeks."
Lizzie shuffled the playing cards on the table and shrugged. "With seven kids, we're kind of an unusual family." Megan, seated next to her big sister, looked up at Lizzie and nodded. One by one, Lizzie dealt the cards out until they each had seven, set the rest of the deck on the table, and turned the top card face up next to the remaining stack.
"How's it going without Spy Barbie and crew?" Sarah asked, trying to shake her pensive mood. The Great Barbie Embargo had begun the night before and would continue until just after the tournament on Friday. Megan had been so tired the previous evening that she didn't even miss her dolls. Sarah hoped that would be the case for the next couple of nights as well.
Megan raised a shoulder slowly and let it drop with a sigh. "It's okay. I miss her, but having Lizzie to play with helps." They'd been on the train for about an hour, with another three and a half to go before they reached Vienna, and the two sisters had already played innumerable hands of cards. They had started off playing Go Fish, moved on to Old Maid and were now launching off into another highly competitive round of Crazy Eights.
Sarah's warm smile to her eldest niece was returned with a slight dip of the chin. "It's better than sitting next to Fred," Lizzie said in a voice that was louder than strictly necessary. Chuck snorted when Megan's eyes—never leaving the cards she scrutinized in her hand—widened and she slowly nodded in agreement.
"Hey! I heard that!" came the response from several rows back. At the train station, Chuck had paid extra to upgrade their seats, so the family and team had an entire compartment to themselves. As a result, they felt free to communicate with each other as they wanted and not fear being overheard. Not that other people being around would have stopped Fred, however.
Ignoring her brother, Lizzie said, "I kinda miss Spy Barbie, too, squirt, but I'm sure she and Joe and Dani are safe in Uncle Casey's duffel bag." She took a card from her hand and laid it down on top of the upturned one on the table.
"I still can't believe he agreed to that," Sarah said.
"Are you kidding? I bet he played with them last night," Chuck said, winking at Megan when she looked at him, her mouth gaping open in surprise. "I wonder how Barbie sounds, with a soprano growl."
From the same area where Fred's comment had come, a decidedly non-soprano voice snarled, "Bartowski..."
Any reply Chuck was going to make was forestalled by his wife putting up her hand. "Yes, Casey?" she called out.
Chuck eyes twinkled at Megan with glee when only muttered grumbles were heard and he whispered, "Saved." Megan giggled into the hand clamped over her mouth.
"You know, even though Spy Barbie's not here, that doesn't mean we can't hear a spy story or two," Lizzie said, sending a sly look Sarah's direction. "Right, Aunt Sarah?"
Face glowing with excitement, Megan bounced in her seat. "You could tell us all about your favorite mission."
"My favorite mission," her aunt said, putting a finger to the side of her face. "Let me think." She tilted her head, raised her gaze to the ceiling and squinted, pretending to think hard. "Mm-hmm. That's the one." Looking back down to Megan, she continued, "I'd have to say my favorite was when I was sent to Colorado to take care of seven brothers and sisters and protect their uncle, a code nerd who worked for the Agency, from some bad guys."
"Sounds terrible," Chuck deadpanned. "How'd that work out for you?"
"Meh," she said with a shrug. "Okay, I guess. Better than I expected I suppose."
Megan looked up at her sister. "Are they teasing?" she asked.
"Yes, they're teasing," Lizzie answered, bopping Megan's nose with her cards.
"I thought so," Megan said, clearly please with that she had figured it out.
"Nice try at earning brownie points, Aunt Sarah," Lizzie said, rolling her eyes, "but your mission to Beaver Creek doesn't count."
"Sure it does," Chuck said. The warmth and humor in his eyes and his crooked smile made her stomach do a flip. "But how about instead of 'favorite' we hear about your 'most memorable,' except for Beaver Creek, of course."
One mission sprang immediately to mind, but she wasn't sure if was appropriate. She decided to go ahead and share the tale since she had some time ago learned how tell any story to a six year-old and make it suitable for young ears.
"Okay, this one was definitely memorable and frankly one I hope never to have to do again." Lizzie and Megan looked at each other with wide eyes and immediately placed their cards face down on the table while Chuck quickly closed the lid to his computer. All three turned and gazed at her expectantly.
Taking a deep breath, she ordered her thoughts, leaned forward and lowered her voice for dramatic effect. "It was about five years ago. Three other agents and I were sent to Kiev, tasked to secure some files from a suspected black marketeer who sold every illegal thing from opium to uranium." Sarah was sure Megan didn't know what either opium or uranium were, or what the black market was for that matter, but from the enraptured look on her face, Sarah saw her niece didn't care. "The intel in those files contained lists of who his suppliers were. So we had to figure out a way to get to those files." She cut a sly glance at Chuck and added, "I seem to do that kind of thing a lot in this job."
He gave her a knowing smile and waggled his eyebrows.
"Anyway," she said with an eyebrow bounce of her own in response, "because some of the drugs that were being moved ended up in the United States, our Drug Enforcement Agency was involved in the op."
"No!" Lizzie exclaimed. "Aunt Carina was one of the other three agents?"
From two rows behind, Sarah heard what sounded like a bottle of water and a book crash to the floor. Suppressing a smirk, she wondered how long it would take for Agent Barstow to move up to an empty seat near her to better hear the tale. Her question was answered when she heard a thump followed immediately by a pained, "Yeow."
Peering over the top of Sarah's head, Lizzie frowned. "Agent Barstow stood up so fast, he lost his balance and bumped his head on the window."
Sarah kept her face neutral as Megan nodded knowingly. "Maybe he has to go to the bathroom really bad."
"Looks like you're right, Megs," Chuck answered. Four sets of eyes watched Barstow walk past them toward the toilet. Returning his attention back to Sarah, Chuck said, "So, you, Carina and two other agents are in Kiev to secure some files. Were they at his house?"
"No, they were in his office at the…" she paused and quickly searched her brain to find a better word than bar, "establishment he owned. We cased the place the night before and saw that his office was usually locked up tight with security guards always nearby."
"So how did you get into the office then if the guards were right there?" Megan asked. Her big blue eyes were fixed on her aunt in complete and utter awe.
"We knew we needed a distraction to draw the guards away from the door. Carina and I were the distraction." Sarah suppressed a smile when Barstow, coming back from his bathroom break, sat down in an empty seat across the aisle from Chuck. Barstow picked up a magazine from the seat next to him and began to flip through it, apparently trying to seem disinterested in what Sarah was saying. He failed miserably.
"What did you do to distract everyone?" Lizzie asked.
"We decided ahead of time that Carina and I would pretend to get into an argument over a guy in front of everyone. 'He likes me! No, he likes me!' kind of thing. While we would argue, the two agents would slip away, get into the office and get the files."
"That's what you did?" Chuck asked. He seemed as spellbound as the two girls—and the eavesdropping Agent Barstow.
"Mm-hmm. The evening of the op, Carina and her DEA partner, Agent Dalton, arrived first. My CIA partner, Agent Hamilton, was already there, too. When I came in a little while later, I sat down next to Agent Dalton and started chatting with him. Well, flirting, really. Carina told me to leave her boyfriend alone." Carina had said it in her own salty and colorful way, but Sarah wasn't going to share that with her girls. Or anyone else for that matter.
"But he wasn't really her boyfriend," Megan said, clarifying the point to herself more than anything else.
"No, he wasn't. We were all just pretending," Sarah reassured her with a nod. "Pretty soon, she and I were yelling at each other and Carina gave me a shove on the shoulder."
"She did?" Megan asked, completely shocked.
"Mm-hmm. It was okay, though, because we'd already decided that the best distraction would be for us to get into a scuffle where we ended up in the mud pit."
There was a sharp gasp, followed by a spasm of coughing from across the aisle. Barstow waved a hand dismissing their concern when they all turned toward him. Sucking in a lungful of air, he croaked, "I'm okay."
Megan frowned and then turned from the still wheezing Agent Barstow to her aunt. "Why would there be a mud pit?"
Lizzie raised an amused eyebrow.
"It must be a Ukrainian thing," she answered without hesitation. Without giving Megan a chance to ask any follow up questions, she plowed forward with her story. "Anyway, Carina gave me a shove, but we were still too far away from the mud pit, so I turned and walked toward it, yelling at her that I didn't have to take that kind of thing from her." Sarah remembered her language being stronger at the time, too. "She followed right behind me and as we got to the edge of the pit, she grabbed me by the wrist and spun me around. 'You can't come in here and start talking to my boyfriend like that and think you're just going to leave,' she said to me."
"'I didn't do anything,' I told her. 'Your boyfriend was more than interested in talking to me. I guess he'd rather talk to a blonde than a stick figured past-her-date redhead.'"
Chuck's face scrunched into a grimace. A hand flew up to Lizzie's and her niece muttered a horrified, "No," between her fingers. From the corner of her eye, she saw Barstow's whole body convulse.
"I don't think Aunt Carina would like someone saying that to her, even if you were just pretending," Megan said slowly, her eyes wide and unblinking.
"You're right, sweetie. She really didn't." Setting her elbow on the table, she rested her chin on her palm. "You know how sometimes something starts off as a game, but then it goes a little too far and you really do get mad at each other?"
"Mm-hmm." She shot an angry look in her brother's direction and grumbled, "Fred."
"That's what happened then with Carina and me. She got this really angry look on her face and then gave me a really hard push. When I started to fall backward, I grabbed her blouse and pulled her along. We both fell into the mud."
"How deep was it?" Lizzie asked.
"Maybe six inches. Deep enough."
"Was it cold?" Megan wondered.
"It was."
From the gleam in her husband's eyes, it was clear Chuck was enjoying her story as much as anyone. "So what happened next?"
"Carina was still mad at me, so I had to remind her why we were there in the first place. I snuck a peek over at Dalton and Hamilton as they were just heading back toward the office. Then I whispered to her, 'Sell it, Carina.' And she growled at me, 'No problem, Walker.'"
"Uh-oh," Megan said under her breath.
"Yeah," Sarah agreed. "We both stood up and started to circle each other like wrestlers. I wanted to make sure people were really focused on us, so I lunged at her. The bottom of the pit was lined with plastic, so it was slipperier than I expected. I sort of fell into her and knocked us both down. She tried to put me into a headlock, but I slipped out of it, grabbed her around the waist and body slammed her into the mud. It splashed everywhere. It was pretty spectacular."
"I take it your diversion was working? Everyone was watching?" Lizzie inquired.
"Oh, yeah. Everyone in the place—including the security guards—were circled around us."
"How come no one tried to stop it?" Megan asked. "There was a fight in kindergarten one day between Tyler and Conner," she wrinkled her nose in disgust when she uttered the boys' names, "and Mrs. Dixon stopped it right away." The whole incident seemed to still scandalize Megan, who breathed, "They were both sent to the principal's office."
When Sarah hesitated, not wanting to tell Megan that people paid good money to see women mud wrestle and that stopping such a fight was the last thing any of the patrons of the bar would do, Chuck jumped in and rescued her. "I bet they didn't want to get all muddy, too."
Megan thought about that for a moment and then nodded. Looking up at her aunt, she asked, "And then what happened?"
Sarah leaned forward to draw them in further. "The whole op was in a critical phase. Both agents were in the office trying to find the files. Carina and I had to make sure that everyone stayed right where they were. By now, Carina wasn't mad at me anymore and fully focused on the mission. She looked at me and mouthed, 'flip.' I gave her a little nod. When I rushed her, she bent over, I put my middle into her shoulder, she stood up and flipped me onto my back."
"Wow," Megan whispered.
"By then, both of us were coated head to toe with mud. My hair was wet and stringy and I even had mud in my ears!" Megan giggled at Sarah's inflections. "I could tell Carina wanted to stop and so did I, but the agents hadn't come back yet, so we had to keep going. It was getting harder and harder to move with our clothes stuck to us like they were and since we knew we were going to end up in the mud, Carina and I wore bathing suits under our clothes." They actually wore bikinis, but Sarah wasn't going to share that bit of information, either. "We took off our blouses and skirts and tossed them to the side."
That bit of intel seemed to break both Chuck and Barstow. The former slipped off to his happy place and a strange, gurgling, burbling sound came from the latter.
Ignoring the two men, Sarah pressed on with her story. "Finally, Agent Hamilton walked past us and out the front door. It was his job to take the files out, so once he was gone, we knew we were almost clear. Agent Dalton came out next and slipped into the crowd like he'd been there the whole time. Carina and I wrestled for a few more minutes to make sure Hamilton had time to get far enough away. By then, we'd given him plenty of time, so at that point Agent Dalton was supposed to step in and stop the fight. Then he and Carina would leave and I would clear out a few minutes later. Except Dalton stood there, his arms crossed in front of him, all smug and grinning. He didn't seem to be in any big hurry to end it. At all. I'd had enough and wanted to get out of there, so I decided to… improvise."
"What does that mean?" Megan asked.
"It means she was making it up as she went along," Lizzie informed her.
"Oh. 'Kay."
"Right," Sarah said, excited to get to her favorite part of the story. "Carina and I stopped fighting and looked at each other. I pointed at Agent Dalton and shouted, 'This is all his fault. If he was with you, he shouldn't have been flirting with me!' I saw this flash in Carina's eyes and I knew she got it, too. 'Yeah,' she said. 'He's a dog!'" Sarah stopped and chuckled. "You should have seen the look of sheer terror on Dalton's face when we both charged over to him and gripped his wrists and gave them a jerk. After his unplanned and yet spectacular belly flop into the mud, Carina and I stepped over him, grabbed our filthy, mud soaked clothes and shoes and went for the door together, our feet slapping across the floor and leaving a trail of muddy footprints."
Slow clapping her appreciation, Lizzie grinned and said, "Bravo, Aunt Sarah. Bravo."
Dipping her head in a gracious bow, she chuckled and said, "Thank you."
"What happened to Agent Dalton?"
Sarah bit her lip and grinned. "Agent Hamilton obviously had already left in one of the two cars we had there. The original plan was for Carina and Dalton to leave together, pull out of the parking lot and wait around the corner until I came out and found them. Since Carina and I left together, she and I went to the car and waited for him. Dalton found us and we three mud covered spies headed back to the safe house."
Concerned, Megan asked, "Was Agent Dalton mad?"
"Yeah, he was. When we called him on what he did, he gave us some lame excuse saying that he was only trying to make sure Hamilton had enough time to get away." She shrugged. "Whatever. The mission was a success and that was all that mattered." Sarah scraped at the top of the table with her thumbnail. "Carina told me later that Dalton requested to their boss that he never have to work with her or me again." Looking up from the spot, she grinned and said, "That worked out fine since Carina and I had already made the same request to our bosses."
"Oh, Aunt Sarah. That's the best spy story, ever," Megan said. Sarah could see the gears turning in the little girl's brain as she tried to figure out when Barbie, Dani and Joe would be able to act out that mission. "I think it'll have to wait until we get home to Colorado. I'm going to have to let GI Jim be a part of this one," she mumbled under her breath. "Even if he is really stiff."
"Thanks for the story, Aunt Sarah. It was awesome," Lizzie said.
"You're welcome."
Picking up her cards, Lizzie asked her sister, "You ready to play, squirt?"
As the girls returned to their game, Sarah put her lips next to Chuck's ear and whispered, "Did you like my story?"
Chuck, having returned from his happy place, nodded enthusiastically. After a brief glimpse at Barstow, still in an apparently near catatonic state, Chuck asked in a quiet voice, "What's up with him?"
Tipping her head to look past her husband, she glanced over at the agent. In an equally quiet voice, she said, "I think he's discovered his happy place."
His eyebrows lowered as he scowled. "Are we going to have a problem with him if you're the one—"
"Oh, no! Not me," she answered quickly. At the confusion on his face, she returned her lips to his ear. "A certain redhead."
"Really?" A tiny smile tugged at his lips. "Our favorite DEA agent, huh? Always knew he was a brave guy."
Snorting, she playfully slapped a hand to his chest. "Keep this intel to yourself, okay?" she said, continuing to whisper in his ear.
He shrugged and replied with a simple, "Okay." He looked at her and his eyes suddenly flared with mischief. This time, it was his turn to press his lips to her ear. "Tell the truth, Agent Walker. That bathing suit you had on under your clothes. It was a bikini, wasn't it?"
"Mm-hmm." She knew it would send him off to his happy place again—maybe he and Barstow could be neighbors—but she couldn't resist. "Leopard print." He jerked a little and his eyes drifted and glazed over. Kissing his cheek, she whispered, "Enjoy your time away. I'll be here when you get back."
~ O ~
Their train arrived at the Wien Meidling station as scheduled, at exactly three twenty-four in the afternoon. Once they made their way through the station, they traveled on the U-bahn to the Mariahilf district of Vienna, where their hotel was located. It was an elegant nineteenth century building with marble floors, rich wood paneling and the kind of thick, luxurious rugs that made Sarah feel like she was walking on a giant pillow. The rooms themselves were fairly small and slept only two people in each—except for Chuck and Sarah's where Megan's mattress was on the floor—so it took some time to get everyone situated.
Sarah wasn't especially pleased with the fact that none of the rooms were adjoining, but it was a fact they simply had to adjust to. She certainly wasn't going to mention it to Morgan, since he was still miffed that the whole sightseeing itinerary for the next day had to be scrapped because of the impromptu trip to Salzburg, grumbling that they were going to miss out on the Hofburg Imperial Palace, the Spanish Riding School and Saint Michael's. She had been somewhat successful in smoothing his ruffled feathers by assuring him that there was plenty of sightseeing to be done in Salzburg. They had even spent quite a bit of time on the train after she'd finished her story discussing with him some things she thought they would be able to do there in the time before the mission. That had seemed to mollify him to some extent as he jotted notes on his clipboard.
None of the rooms were large enough for all of them to meet together, so they gathered in the richly appointed lobby to talk about their plans for the rest of the evening. Morgan's clipboard had them going to dinner and then returning to the hotel fairly early since the original plan had been to spend the entire next day sightseeing. However now that their time in Vienna had been shortened significantly, they wanted to get the most out of their evening.
"Morgan, where does the clipboard say we're supposed to eat dinner tonight?" Chuck asked.
"I don't have my clipboard along since I thought we 'winging it,'" he said, grimacing slightly as if he found the very idea of spontaneity distasteful, "but I still remember it." He poked at his temple with his index finger. "It's a place called, 'Figmiller.'"
Chuck took his phone from his pocket and tapped his thumbs on the screen. "Are you sure that's right, buddy? I'm not seeing it."
All eyes on him, Morgan stammered, "I'm… I'm pretty sure that's what it is."
Sarah turned her head toward Chuck and raised her hand to her mouth. "Try 'Figlmüller,'" she whispered from behind her fingers and spelled it out for him.
"Mm-hmm," he hummed quietly, thanking her. "Ah, here it is. Thanks, buddy."
"Memory like an elephant, Uncle Morgan," Fred said, raising his hand to deliver a high-five. A clearly relieved Morgan slapped the upraised hand with a smile.
"It looks good," Chuck said. "It's says Figlmüller is sometimes called, 'Home of the Schnitzel.'"
Curtis' gaze—which until then had wandered around the lobby in boredom—snapped to his uncle's face. "Did you say schnitzel? I like schnitzel."
Chuck turned and held up his phone for Curtis to see. "Do you think you could eat all that?"
Curtis' eyes widened. "You bet I could."
"Let me see," Fred said. Peering at the screen, he breathed, "Whoa! It's bigger than the plate. We should definitely eat there." His sisters clustered around the phone, looked at the food and voiced their agreement.
"Okay, schnitzel for dinner. And then what?" Chuck asked, pulling the phone back.
Sarah put her hand under Chuck's and tipped the phone so that she could see it better. Tapping the screen and opening the map that gave the location of Figlmüller, she squinted at it and said, "It's only three stops from here on the U-bahn." She brought Chuck's hand and phone closer to her face. "Just across the Danube Canal is the Wiener Prater. We could go there after dinner. That might be fun."
"What is it?" Bridget asked.
"It's a big park," she answered, her voice light.
"That sounds fun," Lizzie responded. Her voice was diplomatic, but there was no enthusiasm behind the words. Lisa sighed and shrugged. Both boys mutely shoved their hands deep in their pockets and hunched their shoulders forward. Only the two littlest girls seemed to like the idea.
Casey groaned and rolled his eyes. "Geez, Walker. You're a regular barrel of fun, aren't you?"
Sarah's eyes twinkled, amused by their lukewarm reaction to her idea. "I guess I forgot to mention the section of the park called the Wurstelprater."
Megan gazed up at her, her face filled with curiosity. "What's that?"
"It's an amusement park," she said, sounding indifferent. "It's got lots of rides, rollercoasters and stuff, but if you think it'll be boring, I'm sure—"
The apathy she'd seen in the kids a moment before vanished. Straightening, with sudden interest, Fred said with a lopsided smile, "You know, I guess that place doesn't sound so bad."
Looking at him side-eyed, Sarah deadpanned, "Uh-huh. I thought so." He beamed at her when she reached out and ruffled his hair.
Plans now set, the group headed toward the front door of the hotel. Agent Vegas caught Sarah by the elbow and stopped her as the rest of the family filed out onto the sidewalk. "Ma'am? What's our assignment for this evening?" Barstow stood next to his partner and looked at her expectantly.
"You two are exceptional agents and worked tirelessly the last couple of days. Tomorrow will be another busy day, so I think you both deserve the evening off." She was surprised when she noticed a shadow of disappointment cross Vegas' face. Barstow seemed to deflate the tiniest bit. "However," she said, keeping her face serious while she stifled the urge to grin at them, "Chuck and the kids will be in a very open and public place when we're all at the Wurstelprater. I'm sorry, but we'll need your help in protecting them. I'm afraid you'll both have to join us at dinner and the amusement park. You may even have to accompany the kids on some of the rides."
"Understood," Vegas said.
She almost laughed out loud when she saw Barstow faintly vibrating with excitement. "Anything for the kids, ma'am."
"Appreciated, agents." A small smile graced her face as she gave them a smart nod. "Let's go." She turned on a heel and strode out the door with the two agents flanking her on either side. They quickly caught up with the rest of the group with the two men staying with Casey at the rear while Sarah fell in step next to Chuck and slipped her hand into his.
"What was all that about?" he asked, sneaking a peek over his shoulder at the agents behind them.
"Nothing. Just picked up a couple more kids who wanted to go to the amusement park with us," she answered with a smirk.
Looking forward again, he squeezed her hand and said with a knowing smile, "Awesome."
~ O ~
"Remind me in ten years to have four-point safety harnesses and a roll bar installed in whatever car Megan learns to drive in," Chuck mumbled to Sarah as they left the bumper cars behind.
"She was a bit aggressive, wasn't she?" she responded with a chuckle. "The first thing she said to me as soon as they turned the cars on was, 'Floor it!'" While Megan was big enough to steer the bumper car, her legs weren't long enough to reach the pedal so that task had fallen to Sarah.
Laughing, she felt him squeeze her hand. "So you did."
"Of course. How else were we going to knock you and Martie sideways across the place?"
"Yeah, us and everyone else. I think she took it as her personal mission to hit everyone as hard as she could," Chuck said, glancing down at his niece, who held tightly to Sarah's other hand.
"They're called 'bumper cars' Uncle Chuck," she piped up. "I was supposed to crash into everyone else, right?"
Sarah raised an eyebrow and peered at him. "She's right, you know."
"I suppose," he answered with a wink. "We chose to take it a little slower, right kiddo?"
From the other side of Chuck, Sarah heard Martie giggle when he shook her hand so fast it made her whole arm wiggle back and forth. "Yeah," she managed between snickers.
"I like going fast," Megan said, no longer walking, but now hopping alongside Sarah like a kangaroo. "I wish I could go on the rollercoasters with the bigger kids," she added with a slight pout.
"Sorry, Megs, but you still have some growing to do before they'll let you on those rides," Chuck said. "Just be glad you got to ride the Wiener Hochschaubahn. It's kind of a big deal to get to ride the oldest rollercoaster in operation in the world."
"Nice use of German, Herr Bartowski," Sarah said.
"Thank you, Frau Bartowski," he replied with a grin.
"No, Uncle Chuck," Megan said, slightly exasperated. "You should say, 'Danke.'"
Martie looked over at her sister and nodded. "Or he could have said, 'Vielen Dank.' Uncle Casey told me that means, 'Many thanks.' I heard our waiter at Figlmüller say that to Uncle Casey when he told him it was the best schnitzel he'd ever eaten." Martie started to skip along next to Chuck as she continued. "He must have really liked it, too, since he ate the rest of ours. Right, Megan?" The two girls had shared a schnitzel and still couldn't come close to finishing it.
"Mm-hmm." Megan, now tired of hopping, started to walk again. "I think Agent Barstow liked the schnitzel as much as Uncle Casey did. He ate his and what Bridget didn't eat." After a pause, she added, "And the part of Lizzie's that the boys didn't finish."
Pride filled Martie's voice when she said, "The waiter said 'Vielen Dank' to me when I told him I liked his tuxedo."
"That was very polite of you to compliment him like that, sweetie," Sarah said. She was thrilled that Chuck and the kids were picking up the language.
"I still like to go fast," Megan said, circling back to where the conversation had started. It always gave Sarah a chuckle, the conversational whiplash that could happen when talking with the two youngest. "I'll have to learn to drive fast for real when I become a CIA agent." Sarah looked at Chuck who shrugged back. "Can we go back on that Vienna Airlines ride before we have to leave? I liked that one. Even though we weren't really flying, it felt like we were."
"I liked the way the wind blew in my face, even though we were inside," Martie added.
"A little more exciting than the Riesenrad, huh?" Sarah asked. The first thing they had done when they arrived at the park was to ride the popular Giant Ferris Wheel, a famous Viennese landmark. From inside one of the fifteen enclosed cabins that slowly took them over two hundred feet in the air, they were able to enjoy a fantastic panoramic view of the city. While it was true that riding the Riesenrad was something many tourists made a point to do when visiting Vienna, it had the added bonus of helping pass the time as the kids' food settled in their stomachs before they went on every spinning, twirling, twisting and spiraling ride in the park.
Chuck glanced at his watch. "It depends on whether or not the rest of the group meets us back at the Calafati when they're supposed to." They walked up to the Calafati—a tall statue of a Chinese man that had once graced the merry-go-round owned by Basilio Calafati in the nineteenth century—and stood by it. As they waited, Sarah noticed the looks of wonder on the girls' faces as they took in the kaleidoscope of neon colors flashing and glowing around them. The sounds that filled the air was a cacophony of carnival music coming from different rides and the occasional screams of rollercoaster riders as they zoomed by. Sarah wasn't positive, but she had the feeling that behind all the other noises, Strauss' The Blue Danube played on a continuous loop over the loudspeakers.
After a few minutes, part of their group approached. Sarah's gaze swept the faces and immediately asked in a tone that was sharper than she intended, "Where are Fred, Lisa and Curtis?"
"Simmer down, Walk—, Sarah," Casey said, catching himself before he could be corrected by the Name Police. "They wanted to go on a ride called the Schwarze Mamba," he informed her, hiking his thumb over his shoulder in the general direction of the attraction. "The rest of us didn't want to lose our dinner all over our shoes, so we came to meet up with you."
"Barstow better be with them," she said in growl.
Vegas, obviously detecting the angry mama bear tone in Sarah's voice, quickly came to his partner's defense. "He is, ma'am. The kids talked him into going on the ride with them."
"Should we wait here or go watch our intrepid thrill seekers take on," Chuck's voice grew dark and ominous, "the Schwarze Mamba?"
Sarah inclined her head toward Chuck's and in a low tone, said, "That means Black Mamba. Do you think that will be a problem?" At his confused look, she flicked her gaze to Megan and then back to him.
His face cleared when he understood her meaning. Shrugging, he answered, "Probably not. I don't remember seeing it, but they usually call rides things like that just to make them sound scary."
"I wanna go watch Fred and Curtis scream like a little girls," Lizzie said with a wicked smile. Bridget's eyes gleamed as she grinned and nodded.
"Oh, let me bask in the sibling love," Chuck said, sounding a bit like a country preacher. He held his up palms, closed his eyes and tipped his face up with a beatific smile as if drinking in a warm glow.
When Lizzie laughed and smacked him gently on the arm, he snagged her by the wrist and gathered her up in a hug. "Who am I to stand in the way of this precious family bonding time?" Releasing her, he said, "Let's go watch your brothers scream like little girls."
Chuck sent a quick text to Fred telling him to stay where he was and wait for them in case the boys and Lisa were done with the ride before they got there. Then the group set off, the girls chatting about the different rollercoasters and rides they went on and which ones they liked the most. They neared their destination, and when the family came around the corner of a building, Sarah felt Megan's hand tighten in hers as the little girl stopped dead in her tracks. Sarah ground to a halt and looked down at her. Her stomach clenched at the sight of Megan standing there, completely paralyzed. Squatting down, she searched Megan's face. When she saw her eyes fixed and wide with fright, adrenaline spurt in her middle. "Megan, sweetie, what's the matter?"
Her niece's small hand rose slowly and she tentatively pointed at something in the near distance. Sarah turned to see a twenty-foot tall snake, coiled and menacing, its mouth open to display its sharp, pointed fangs and forked tongue. To make matters worse, the glowing yellow eyes seemed to stare directly at them.
"Oh, boy," Sarah said under her breath. Still in a crouch, she duck-walked so that her whole body was directly in front of Megan, blocking her view of the snake in an attempt to snap her out of her trance. "Megan," she said gently. Taking the two small hands in hers, she called her name again and then waited until Megan's blue eyes focused on hers.
"I don't like snakes," Megan said, her voice quivering. "And that's a really big one."
"I know," Sarah said. Trying to reassure Megan, she squeezed both hands and said, "And even though you know it's not real, it's still scary."
Megan nodded slowly, her face somber.
Sarah craned her neck to look behind her. Chuck, Casey and everyone else had reached the ride and were talking to the kids and Barstow as they waited for their turn. Rotating back to face Megan, she made a split second decision. She didn't know what the parenting books said about whether or not a child should face his or her fears. Frankly, she didn't care. She knew in her gut that she needed to make her little girl feel safe.
"We're not going to go any closer. I promise. I'll text Uncle Chuck and tell him you and I are going to find something else to do for a few minutes." A word outlined in red neon across the top of an arcade booth about fifty yards behind Megan caught her eye. The corners of Sarah's mouth lifted. It was perfect.
Before standing up, she took her phone from her pocket and quickly sent Chuck a text telling him Megan was afraid of the giant snake and to have the whole group meet them at the booth they would be at. She stood, took Megan's hand again and watched him take his phone from his pocket. After he read the text, he immediately scanned the area as he looked for her. When his gaze landed on her, she waved, pointed down at Megan and then behind her. He nodded, pointed to himself and then at her. She shook her head and blew him a kiss. Then the two turned and walked toward the booth.
"Aunt Sarah, what are we gonna do?"
"You see that booth ahead of us? Can you read it?"
She shook her head. "I can barely read English. I sure can't read German."
Sarah laughed out loud. What a great kid. "Good point," she said through her chuckles. "That sign is in English, though."
Megan slowly read the word, sounding out each letter. "S-n-i-p-p-e-r." Her eyebrows pulling together, she looked up at Sarah and said, "What's a snipper?"
"That was really close. It says sniper. It's a shooting gallery."
They arrived at the booth and Sarah eyed the BB rifles lined up on the carpet covered counter. There was a teenage boy to one side of the spot they had chosen and a middle-aged man on the other, plinking at the line of metal targets comprised of bullseyes, little yellow ducks and white rabbits. The teenaged attendant behind the counter eyed and smirked at the beautiful blonde woman and her little blonde girl. Sarah read the sign informing her that each round was seven shots. Anyone who hit seven targets with those seven consecutive shots would win a prize. She tossed a couple of coins on the counter and picked up a rifle. She looked it over, held it up to her shoulder, closed an eye and peered down the sights. Finding it acceptable, glanced down at Megan. "Ready?"
Megan gasped with excitement. "I'm gonna get to watch you shoot a gun?"
"Nope," Sarah answered, dropping the rifle from her shoulder and holding it out. "You're going to shoot one."
"I am?" Megan reached out both hands and was about to touch the rifle when she snatched her hands back, as if it was red hot and might burn her. "I'm not supposed to ever touch a gun."
Sarah smiled, so proud of Megan for remembering the rule. Still holding it out, she said, "You're right. You're not. But I'm here to help you and teach you, so it's okay."
The tentative look on Megan's face gave way to a happy smile, the giant snake now all forgotten. "Oh boy!"
One of Sarah's hands remained on the rifle while Megan gripped it with both of hers. After telling Megan to always keep the muzzle pointed down range and to never put her finger on the trigger until she was ready to shoot, Sarah pointed out the sights and explained how to use them to aim. Then she maneuvered Megan so that Sarah stood behind her to show her where to put her hands and rest the butt of the stock against her shoulder. Once the safety lesson and instructions were complete, Sarah took the gun, cocked the lever and then helped Megan get into position again. Bending over and encircling Megan from behind, Sarah kept her left hand under Megan's on the forearm of the rifle and her right over Megan's hand near the trigger.
With her head right next to Megan's, she gently instructed in a calm voice, "Try to hold it level. Now, close your left eye and line up the two sights with your target with the open one." She peeked at Megan's face. One eye was squeezed tight and her tongue stuck out of the corner of her mouth in deep concentration. "You got the target in the sights?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Good. Now, we're going to flip off the safety." Although Megan's finger was on the switch, Sarah's did most of the work. "Move your finger to the trigger, but don't shoot yet." When she felt Megan's finger move to the trigger, she said, "Take a deep breath. Slowly let some of it out and then hold it." Megan did exactly as she had been told. "When you're ready, just squeeze the trigger."
There was a pop. With an excited gasp, Megan cried, "I did it! I shot a real gun." She looked at her target. "Did I hit it?"
"No, I'm sorry. You didn't, but it was only your first try and you get six more shots."
Sarah cocked the rifle again. Carefully and methodically, Megan took aim and shot. The lower lip stuck out and her brows pulled together when she saw she missed again.
"It's okay. Keep practicing."
The next shot knocked over a little yellow duck, which brought about a happy squeal. Surprisingly, the remaining shots missed, even with Sarah helping to steady the gun.
"I'm not very good at this," Megan grumbled with a frown.
"You did fine," Sarah replied, chucking the little girl under the chin in an attempt to soothe her frustration. Taking the rifle, Sarah tossed another coin at the booth attendant. She noticed the sly look hadn't left his face. Growing up a conman's daughter, she recognized "hinky" when she saw it. "Let me try a couple of shots."
She cocked the gun, raised it to her shoulder, aimed and squeezed the trigger. The tiny projectile missed to the left. Repeating the motions led to the same result, another miss. While she never considered her gun skills to be at the level of a sniper, she certainly had the skills to hit a metal bullseye with an air powered BB gun. The next time she set her aim, she moved the sights a little to the right and pulled the trigger. There was a ping and the bullseye fell back. That told her exactly what the problem was. The sights were off. While it was true that could be a legitimate issue with any weapon, Sarah had the feeling these were off on purpose so the booth wouldn't have to give out many prizes.
She settled with rifle back into Megan's hands and positioned herself behind her to assist her as she had done before. Before she let Megan take the last four shots, she whispered, "The sights are off a little. Aim a bit to the right of your target."
After her deep breath, Megan pulled the trigger and hit the target. Of the next three shots, she hit the target once more.
"Can I try one more time?" Megan asked. Her eyes shone with eagerness as she bounced on her toes. "I want to try to win a prize."
Another coin landed on the counter. "One more time." This time, she hit four targets out of seven. Her disappointment of not winning a prize quickly evaporated when Sarah pointed out that, while she had still been right behind her, that time Sarah's hands hadn't touched the rifle at all. Megan grinned with pride when she understood that she had hit the targets all by herself.
Sarah was certainly pleased with how well Megan had done and her attitude at not winning a prize. At that point, they could have easily walked away from the booth. Sarah, however, intensely disliked the feeling that she had been suckered, and decided to remedy the situation. She dropped one more coin on the counter and picked up the rifle. Shooting like a gunslinger from an old black and white Western, in fifteen seconds she cocked and fired off seven shots in quick succession, each one knocking over a target.
"Wow," Megan breathed in wonder.
Sarah laid the rifle back on the counter, staring at the attendant with a raised eyebrow. The smirk was gone and had been replaced by a surprised face and gaping maw. "Unser Preis?" she asked. She knew they had spent way more on shooting than what the prize was worth, but that wasn't really the point. "Ein kleines, bitte," she added. Winking at Megan, she said, "I asked him to give us a small prize. We don't want to have to schlep a giant stuffed gorilla around for the rest of our trip."
Megan nodded and accepted a small lime green stuffed unicorn from the young man. "What do you say?" Sarah prompted.
Without a second's hesitation, the little girl gazed up at him and said, "Danke."
"Bitte," he replied with a smile and a bow.
Turning away from the booth, Sarah spied Chuck and the rest of the group waiting for them a few yards away. Megan took off toward him at a dead sprint and jumped up. He caught her out of the air and held her so that they were face to face. "What have you been doing, Miss Megan?"
"Aunt Sarah showed me how to shoot a real rifle! And we won this!" She held up the unicorn for him to admire.
"How long have you been here?" Sarah asked him as she joined the group.
"Long enough to see you go all Annie Oakley on that shooting range."
"Did you see me?" Megan asked, clutching the unicorn to her chest and wiggling in his arms.
"I did. You're a natural." She beamed at his compliment and squirmed some more. He set her on her feet and she made a beeline for Casey.
"Uncle Casey! I always made sure to keep the muzzle pointed down range," she informed him as she slipped her little hand into his big one.
The group turned and walked toward the front of the park. "Way to go, kid." He was genuinely impressed. "Did you keep your finger off the trigger until you were ready to shoot?"
"Mm-hmm." Megan continued to rattle off all the safety precautions she'd taken as they walked.
Walking next to Chuck, Sarah peeked over at the four who had ridden the Black Mamba. None of them spoke and all seemed pretty subdued. "Is it the neon lights, or are they kind of green?" Even Barstow appeared to be a bit unsteady on his feet.
"Let's just say the mamba took a bite out of them."
Groaning at his terrible pun, she bumped him with her shoulder. "Are we done here? No encore flight on Vienna Airlines?"
"No, it's getting late and we have a busy day tomorrow."
"On to Salzburg, Mr. Carmichael?" She slipped an arm around his waist as he slung an arm over her shoulders.
"On to Salzburg, Mrs. Carmichael."
~ O ~
The kids were less than thrilled that the train to Salzburg left Wien Westbahnhof at seven-forty in the morning. The fact that the train station was within walking distance of the hotel was of little consolation at that early hour. They understood that since they only had one day in Salzburg, they had to get an early start if they wanted to spend as much time exploring the city as they could before the mission that evening. That didn't mean they had to like it, though.
It was ten-fifteen when they arrived at the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof. Chuck took the down time on the train to finish coding the Trojan horse he would download onto Zeller's computer. Sarah, Casey, Vegas and Barstow sat with their heads together, quietly discussing specifics of the upcoming op. All of the kids slept during the entire train trip—some curled up in tight balls while others with arms and legs sprawled—so that by the time they prepared to disembark at the central station, their moods had improved considerably.
As they gathered their things and prepared to step off the train, Sarah said, "Kids, remember that you're to stay with Uncle Casey, Uncle Morgan and Agents Barstow and Vegas until Uncle Chuck and I come to you. The BVT officers will be meeting us here at the train station and we don't want them to know about you so you have to act like you don't know us."
"Don't worry, Aunt Sarah. We'll completely ignore you, right guys?" Fred said. "Right," came the resounding replies.
"Good. Uncle Chuck and I will go now and you come after in a minute."
"Unclench, Walker. We'll be fine," Casey growled. He picked up his duffle bag full of tactical gear, slung it over his shoulder and glared at her impatiently. "Just go already."
She slipped on the strap of the overnight bag she'd purchased in one of the hotel's shops the night before and went through the sliding door and onto the platform. Chuck followed right behind her. Without looking back, the two fell in step and strode down the crowded platform toward the main building. "You remember what we talked about?" She knew she was probably being paranoid asking him again, but this mission was the first time he had to play another person for any real length of time and he had a lot to pull off. He couldn't be Chuck Bartowski to anyone, even the BVT officers they were about to meet.
"Yeah. I'm Charles Carmichael and you're Sarah Walker. When we're around the Austrian agents, we're not married and our relationship is purely professional."
Sarah sighed. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't allow her spy persona and Agent Carmichael to be in any kind of personal relationship. Having already confessed to Harry Chalmers that Sarah Walker had "found someone," she couldn't take the risk of allowing anyone—other than those who already knew she was married to Chuck—to actually see her with that "someone."
He held up his left hand and wiggled his fingers. "What about our rings? Should we take them off?"
"No," she blurted. At his smirk, she raised an eyebrow and clarified her response. "I don't want to lose them. If they ask, we'll tell them they're part of our cover."
"Works for me." He dropped his hand and shot a roguish smile her way. "If our relationship is purely professional, you'll have to quit making those bedroom eyes at me all the time."
"Me?" she said with a laugh. "You're the one with the eyebrows that have a mind of their own."
"That's not the only thing that has a mind of its own."
She stumbled when her legs nearly gave out from under her. His hand on her elbow steadied her and helped stop a potentially epic and embarrassing header. Giving him a sidelong glance, she said, "You're going to pay for that later, Agent Carmichael."
He removed his hand from her arm and kept his eyes fixed in front of him. The humor she saw in them indicated how pleased he was by his effect on her. "Promise, Agent Walker?"
As they approached the newspaper and magazine shop where they were to meet the officers from the BVT, her whole demeanor changed. Gone in a flash was the relaxed teasing from a moment before. It was replaced by intensity and focused professionalism. "Mm-hmm," she answered absently as her gaze swept the area.
Chuck, obviously noticing her transformation, immediately sobered and shoved the hand that swung next to her deep into the pocket of his jeans, as if corralling it. While she missed the easy intimacy with which they usually walked—there was almost always some kind of physical contract between them—she knew there could be none now. Although she didn't physically put her hand in her pocket as Chuck had done, she did so mentally.
They reached the small shop, stopped and began to peruse the racks of magazines as they waited. She couldn't stop one corner of her mouth from lifting when she heard him say with quiet enthusiasm, "Oooo! Comic books." As he happily flipped through one, Sarah's eyes continued to roam. With feigned disinterest, she watched the kids and their protection detail enter the building. She was pleased to see the kids were paired up in their "teams," with Morgan taking her place with Megan.
Sarah picked up a magazine, opened to a random page and tipped her head down. Her eyes, however, never glanced down at the page. Instead, she watched as the group walked toward a small food stand. She wasn't surprised that they were hungry, having foregone breakfast for a few more minutes of sleep.
She'd just dropped her gaze to the magazine she held when from the corner of her eye she saw a figure approach. Sarah looked up when a woman's accented voice said, "Excuse me. Are you Sarah Walker?" The woman looked to be bit younger than Sarah, with shoulder length dark blonde hair and startling green eyes.
"Yes, I am." She put the magazine back on the rack at the same time Chuck returned his comic book. Sarah turned and indicated to him with an upturned palm. "And this is Charles Carmichael." She bit back the urge to add a possessive, "My partner," when she saw the woman's eyes flash with appreciation when she looked at him. Sarah's irritation further flared when she held his hand a little too long as she shook it.
"My name is Lena Bauer. I am from the BVT," she said. With her free hand, she flipped open a small leather wallet and showed them her badge and credentials. Finally releasing his hand, she put her badge away and shook Sarah's hand. "We have a car waiting to take you to the house."
Sarah's brow furrowed. "I'm sorry. When we spoke with our director late last night, he assured us that there would be a van available for our use. Our other team members haven't arrived yet and they'll need to transport all of our gear." She looked up at Chuck and then back to Officer Bauer. "We were told the meeting now would simply entail you giving us the key to and the location of the vehicle and the address of the house. Once we met up with the rest of our team, we were to ride there together."
"Yes, that was the plan, but unless your associates arrive in the next few minutes, there must be a slight change." Bauer turned her attention from Sarah and addressed Chuck. "We were tasked to obtain items for you to wear to the party tonight and while we were given your general sizes, we need you to try on the clothes immediately. If there is a problem with size, we need to make the appropriate adjustments before tonight." The woman gave Chuck an appraising look and purred, "I hope the tuxedo will fit your tall, athletic build."
Chuck's Adam's apple bobbed when he swallowed hard. Looking down at his wife, he was clearly both supremely uncomfortable and slightly panicked at the inappropriate attention he was receiving from the BVT officer. "What do you think?" His eyes pleaded with her to somehow make it all stop.
Poor Chuck. Sarah didn't know if she should laugh out loud at the woman's obvious and unprofessional flirtations or haul off and clock her with a right hook. Knowing that either one would put the whole op in jeopardy and the second might also land her in jail, she forced the hand that had unconsciously balled into a fist to relax. She hated to admit it, but Officer Bauer did have a point. "It makes sense." It frustrated her that things had gone a bit sideways already, but she couldn't allow anyone in any intelligence community to know they were traveling with the kids. They would have to go now with the people from the BVT and have Casey and everyone else follow as soon as possible. "We just need to be sure to get the key to the van to our guys." Turning to the officer, Sarah asked, "How do we do that?"
Bauer took a plain white envelope from her purse and held it up. "The key to the vehicle is in this envelope. We can write the name of your teammate on the outside and have it held at the information desk where he or she can pick it up."
"How will he know where the van is parked?" Chuck asked. His eyebrows shot up and he added, "Or where the house is?"
From the envelope, Officer Bauer pulled out a small piece of paper. "These are the directions to both from here. For obvious security reasons, it would be better if you could call or text this information to your associate rather than leaving it with the key."
Sarah lifted her phone from her pocket and took the paper from Officer Bauer's hand. "If you'll excuse us for a moment, Mr. Carmichael and I will make that call," Sarah said, keeping her voice even and polite.
With a wink at Chuck, Bauer said, "I will be here waiting."
The two walked a few feet away and stood with their backs to the BVT agent. "You doing okay?" she asked under her breath as she looked down at her phone.
"Yeah." He blew out a shaky breath. "Is it me, or is she a bit forward?"
Sarah touched the screen to call Casey and put the phone up to her ear. As she waited for him to answer, she said, "'Forward' is putting it mildly. Under different circumstances, I'd have broken her arm by—"
She didn't get a chance to finish her thought when Casey answered with an irritated, "What the hell's taking so long, Walker. Get the keys and let's move."
"Slight change of plans." She went on to explain the problem and what they had to do now.
"We haven't even started the damn mission yet and it's already a cluster," he grumbled. Sarah could tell he had pulled the phone away from his face when he said, "I need a piece of paper and a pen."
She refrained from turning around and watching their search for the requested paper and pen when she overheard the major say, "Thanks, but I'm not gonna write anything on a page from a coloring book with a pink crayon." There was a pause where Sarah could hear either Martie or Megan—she couldn't tell—say something to him. "I don't care if it is 'magenta,' I'm not gonna do it." After another round of unintelligible grumbling, he said, "Grimes! Hey, Grimes! Pull your head out and give me your clipboard and a pen." The phone moved closer to his mouth when he said, "Okay, Walker. Shoot."
Sarah read off the information from the paper. "Wait until Chuck and I leave the station, then you can go find the van. We'll let you know as soon as it's safe for you all to meet up with us at the house once we've gotten rid of our BVT minders."
"Roger that." Casey said and ended the call.
All Sarah wanted to do before they rejoined Officer Bauer was to take Chuck's hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. Unfortunately, at that moment, she could only encourage him with her words. As she returned the phone to her pocket, she said under her breath, "You're doing great, sweetie."
"Thanks." He heaved a sigh. "Are you sure we can't tell her that you and I are having a wild affair to get her to back off?"
It was tempting. She turned her face to look up at him. "I wish we could, but we can't risk it." For the first time since before they were married, she had to stop herself from touching her hand to his cheek. She'd forgotten how much she hated having to mind herself that way. "Ready?"
"Ready."
After rejoining Officer Bauer, Sarah wrote Casey's name on the front of the envelope and left it with the attendant at the information desk.
"The car is this way," Bauer said, leading them toward the front entrance of the station. Sarah knew Chuck wanted to glance back at the kids on their way out as much as she did, but they both managed to keep their eyes forward. Once out of the building, they turned to the right and walked toward a line of cars. A man standing by one of the vehicles waved at them as they approached. Sarah judged him to be in his mid-fifties and by his demeanor he didn't appear to be particularly thrilled to be there.
"This is Sebastian Gruber," Bauer said. "Both he and I will be at the party with you tonight."
"Guten Tag," he said, shaking first Sarah and then Chuck's hand. While his handshake was firm, Sarah still sensed apathy from the man. As long as he and Officer Lena Bauer stayed out of their way, though, she didn't care what his problem was. "The house is about fifteen minutes southeast of here. We should get going."
"Yes, of course," Chuck said. When he opened the rear door of the car for Sarah to slide into the backseat first, Bauer bolted toward it, obviously determined to ride next to Chuck. Sarah, equally determined to stop her, made a sweeping swing with her overnight bag—nearly whacking the other woman with it—before tossing it into the back of the car. Sarah had barely sat down and hadn't even had a chance to scoot over before Chuck had a leg in. He practically sat on her as he flopped into the backseat and slammed the door closed behind him.
As they clipped into their seatbelts, Gruber grunted as he lowered himself into the driver's seat. Once Bauer took her seat, Gruber started the ignition.
As the car pulled away from the station, Sarah had the feeling that this was only the beginning of what was going to be a very long day.