Chapter 14

At a few minutes before seven on Wednesday morning, Phillip rang the doorbell at the Davis house in Arlington. Kendra opened the door. She was dressed in a t-shirt, tracksuit pants – Agency issue, of course - socks and running shoes, and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. "Hi," she said as she and Phillip shared a quick hug. They'd agreed that kissing, real kissing, not the quick peck he'd given her the day before, would have to wait until they knew each other better, but that hugs were fine. "Come on in. Have you had breakfast yet?"

"No, just coffee. Grandma's not feeling well today- her arthritis is getting her down – and I only eat breakfast to please her."

"Well, come and have some with us, then; Daddy fries a mean strip of bacon, and we made pancakes."

She tugged him toward the kitchen, where Matt Davis, in shorts and a t-shirt that read "Army War College", was frying bacon and keeping an eye on the pancakes on the electric griddle.

"Morning, Phillip. Here, make yourself useful," he said, handing Phillip the pancake turner. "You know how to tell when they're ready to turn?"

"Yes, sir. My mom taught me that." Phillip glanced at the edges of the pancakes and started flipping.

"I'll get the butter and syrup," Kendra said.

As soon as the food was ready, Matt fixed plates for himself and Deb and disappeared.

"How is your mom today?"

"Not too bad, he says. This is more a chance for him to pamper her than because she can't make it out here to eat."

"Sure, I understand. I'm glad he's going to be here while you're gone. When does he have to go back?"

"He took two weeks off, so he doesn't have to leave until a week from Sunday. Even with these two weeks off, he still has six weeks of leave saved up, so as soon as he gets the word from the army, he's going to go on terminal leave and move back up here. He's hoping they won't drag their heels about letting him retire so it won't take that long."

"Any idea what he plans to do once he retires?"

"He's put some feelers out for jobs in the D.C. Metro area, but nothing has come back yet – too soon."

"Sure."

They finished breakfast and Phillip cleaned up while Kendra went to say goodbye to her parents and get the Agency gym bag that contained everything she was allowed to bring to Station One: a few changes of underwear and socks, an extra pair of running shoes, her hairbrush and ponytail elastics, and two books of her choice. Everything else would be provided, right down to a toothbrush.

"I get two books," she said, pulling them out of the bag to show him. "General Grant's memoirs, because the first Matthew Davis was on his staff as his chief of intelligence, and this. Only one volume, so it meets the criteria, but I get not just one but four Jane Austen novels to read."

"Smart move, and those are some very eclectic choices."

"I like to read popular thrillers too, but when space is at a premium, you go for the good stuff."

"Sure. Ready?"

"Ready."

On the drive into Georgetown, she was quiet, and he didn't press her to talk. When they reached the Agency, the space where he'd parked two days before was taken, not surprising given the early hour, so he stopped just long enough to drop her off. "Thanks for the lift," she said.

"Knock 'em dead, K.D."

"I'll do my best. Bye now."

She jumped out of the car, and since there was another car approaching, Phillip pulled away from the curb and drove away, but only long enough to make sure she would have had time to enter the building. He found a parking space down the block and walked back to the house across the street, rang the doorbell, and opened the door when a 'click' told him the lock had released. He stepped into the front hallway just as his brother Jamie came down the stairs, wearing an Agency tracksuit. The glasses that Jamie had worn for so long were gone, made unnecessary by corrective surgery on his eyes, though he still wore clear glass lenses as part of his cover job as a photographer.

"Hey, little brother. When did you get back into town?" Phillip asked.

"Last night about ten. Mom told me the news about the cousins; she also told me that one of them is in this new group, and that you've been seeing a lot of each other the last couple of days."

"Yeah. This one is different, Jamie."

"You mean because she has a brain?"

"Well, yeah. I just dropped her off. How'd you wangle a weekend off in the middle of June wedding season?"

"We have our ways."

Phillip laughed. "Why did I even ask? The first time I met her, she asked me if I worked over there. I told her no, that it wasn't my scene. I didn't add that I thought having a mother, a stepfather and a brother at the Agency was plenty."

"Thanks for not blowing my cover, then," Jamie said. "The job is going okay?"

"Oh, sure; I'm new, so mostly I write position papers and answer emails, but next year, he says I'll be on the team for the symposium. I'm not a genius like you, just a worker bee."

"And how you ended up at a foundation that specializes in public policy issues when you hated social studies in school still amazes me."

"People can change."

"Very true."

"How are you going to explain the fact that you haven't been at any of the orientation sessions? If you show up at the last minute someone's bound to peg you as the ringer."

"Oh, that's easy. Jeter will just tell them that I was all set to go to Station One in the last cycle, but that I got the flu and couldn't make it. I'd already done the orientation, so they didn't make me repeat it."

"She still might figure it out; she's a smart one."

"If she does, that's just more evidence that she's right for this job. I know it's only been a couple of days, but what if this gets serious down the road?"

"I'll cope. After all, I've been living in the Spy Family for fourteen years, even though we didn't know about it for the first four. She's worth it."

"Glad to hear it. I'd better get over there; don't want to be late on my first day at Station One."

"Nope. I'm outta here, then. See ya later, Brother."

The two brothers shook hands and shared a bear hug, something they would never have done even five years earlier, and Phillip left the house. He walked down to where he'd left his car and was pulling away from the curb when glanced in his rearview mirror and saw Jamie, who carried identification giving his name as "James Bishop", come out of the house and cross the street.

"Gonna be a very interesting Station One," he thought, as he turned the car toward DuPont Circle.