So, what's going on? ...
Chapter Seventeen
"Gentlemen," Treville said, a little later, as he strode grim-faced, into the ICU office along the corridor from where Mendez's attack had happened.
Kate had shown Aramis and Porthos into the office after receiving a brief phone call, and had then left. A few moments later, Treville had arrived.
"What's goin'" on?" Porthos said.
"Take a seat," he said to his two operatives, who were both looking both bewildered and agitated.
Porthos refused the request to sit, preferring to stand, arms folded. Treville let it pass, taking a seat at the desk and pulling papers from his briefcase. He dropped them on the desk as Aramis shot Porthos a look, before taking a seat opposite him.
A few moments later, the office door opened and Kate let herself into the room. She showed no sign of what had recently happened, appearing as cool and calm as ever as her blue eyes swept confidently over them.
She, too, refused the offer of the last seat in the office, preferring to stand next to Porthos, who was frowning now and beginning to look impatient.
Treville looked at his two men and sat back.
"This is Ninon de Larroque," he said, nodding toward her. She returned a tilt of her head as he added, "She is a highly trained Special Forces medic."
"Say what?" Porthos said, his eyebrows raised, an incredulous look on his face.
"A nurse and a Special Forces operative?" Aramis asked, equally stunned.
"A doctor, actually," Ninon smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "But fire arms and combat trained," she added, as if it was the most normal thing to say.
"We have used her services before," Treville continued. "She has been guarding Athos since he was first brought in."
"Not as well as I would have liked, Captain," she interjected, folding her arms now, looking at Treville.
"Mendez is a formidable and determined opponent," Treville countered, firmly, by way of countering her statement.
"Forgive our manners," Aramis said, carefully, as he stood briefly and held out his hand.
Ninon smiled briefly and shook it. Porthos grunted and unfolded his arms and offered her his own hand, side-glancing at Aramis as he did so.
"This feels odd," he muttered, under his breath.
"Doesn't it," Aramis replied, his eyes still on Ninon.
They had known her for some three weeks but the woman that stood before them was suddenly a stranger.
"We knew you were highly trained, but not to this extent," Aramis said, running a hand through his hair.
No-one spoke as the new information was absorbed.
"How did Mendez know where Athos was?" Aramis finally asked, reluctantly turning his attention back to his Captain, even though he had a hundred questions he wanted to direct at the woman now in his peripheral vision.
"I would imagine he has scoped all the facilities in Paris," Treville said. "Any normal man would have got out of the country, but Mendez isn't normal. He laid a false trail, adding another corpse to his tally."
"So, what about Julia? Is she Special Forces too?" Porthos asked, reaching up and rubbing the side of his face wearily. He always hated not know what was going on and this was way up there at the top of the scale.
"No," Treville replied. "She's a regular ICU nurse. From what she says, Mendez set her up. She was just in the right place at the wrong time when he paid a visit here a few days ago. Mapped the whole place out."
"Why didn't you tell us about Kate … Ninon?" Aramis said then, leaning forward and squaring up to Treville, his tone taking on a hard edge, knowing he was voicing what Porthos also wanted to ask.
"It would have blown her cover," Treville replied, on Ninon's behalf.
"You wanted Mendez to make a move on Athos?" Porthos said, his voice low.
"Of course not!" Treville said. "But it was always a possibility. He found Athos's witnesses, killed them in a supposed safe house. Ninon wanted it this way."
"He wanted to," Ninon interjected. "Captain Treville took some persuading, to be fair," she added. "As a nurse, I can remain in the ICU," she now continued, having so far allowed the conversation to continue around her until they had all settled, but now ready to give her own explanation. "It's standard practise to have designated nurses assigned to patients. As a doctor, it would have raised eyebrows. There are only so many doctors to go round."
Aramis looked at Ninon intently, but she held his gaze.
"As a nurse," she explained, "I could protect him.
"Not 24/7," Porthos grunted.
"Perhaps not," she replied, calmly. "But he had you two, who practically had to be thrown out of the room most days."
"Having said that," Treville cut in, gruffly, "You two hot heads are hardly predictable. I know you would guard Athos with your lives, but a cool head around here did not go amiss."
Porthos and Aramis shared a look. Porthos looked away.
"I didn't know," he said, quietly.
"Neither of us did," Aramis replied, realising Porthos was again feeling guilty for leaving him alone with Athos while he followed his lead on the truck.
"But you didn't leave 'im," Porthos growled at his friend.
"And Mendez still got the information he needed," Treville sighed. "Let's put this to one side now, Gentlemen, and focus."
The atmosphere was tense in the small office, but eventually, everyone took a few moments to breathe.
"So," Aramis finally asked quietly, turning back to Ninon; "Does Athos know about your skill set?"
Treville looked a little contrite;
"No," he said, once more speaking for Ninon, who allowed it with a tilt of her head. "He knew he was being protected. There are cameras in the room, of course, but he didn't know how."
"It wasn't enough," Porthos growled, before falling silent.
"Getting back to Mendez," Treville ground out, drawing them back, "The phone message to the mechanic was probably a set up. As was the supposed text from me, to get you two out of the way, so he could deal with Athos."
"It nearly worked," Aramis murmured.
"But for Ninon." Treville said, firmly.
"I did this," Porthos suddenly said, never one to be easily placated if he felt he was at fault; a trait they all shared. "I found the phone. Mendez knew we were on to him. He came back."
"No," Aramis said, reaching out and laying his hand on his friend's arm. "We don't know he even left the area. He could have got anyone to fly that plane out to fool us. And his missed the mechanic's phone. That was his mistake. If anything, you flushed him out. We might never have found him otherwise."
"Or he left the phone on purpose, for us to find," Porthos persisted. "Either way, he's played us," he said, angrily, punching a tight fist into his palm. "He's ahead of us again and we've got nothing new on him!"
"Not entirely. There's something else," Treville said, pulling out three sheets of paper from the ones he had placed on the desk..
He passed them over to Porthos who read them, and then looked up with a tight smile.
"The lacerations on the mechanic's body match those on the couple who died in the safe house," he said.
That was the conclusive evidence they all sought that linked the deaths. That, was the Holy Grail.
"That's what I've been doing," Treville said, taking back the report. "It took a little time to get access to the original autopsy reports from the Coroner, but it's firm evidence that Mendez is implicated in all three deaths. His lawyers can't argue against that."
"And," Aramis added, "Mendez is on the hospital room's CCTV assaulting Athos and if his lawyers get any fancy ideas this time, now we have Julia and K ...Ninon's evidence of his intent to kill him."
"At last, firm evidence is stackin' up in our favour," Treville said, allowing himself a small smile.
"There is still the small matter of actually capturing him," Aramis said. "Not wishing to labour the point," he added.
"We'd better brief Athos," Porthos said, pushing away from the wall.
Ninon, however, turned to him and stood her ground.
"Give it a few minutes," she said. "He's just having his plaster cast repaired," she explained. "And," she added, "he's not in the best of moods. I had better go first. I think I have some explaining to do."
To be continued ...