Chapter 17

The wedding ceremony at the Base Chapel at Andrews Air Force Base on Wednesday, June 11th was very small, with only the Davis and Stetson-King families in attendance, but everyone agreed it had had been lovely nonetheless. Matt, in a new gray suit and Deb, in a powder blue 'Mother of the Bride' dress that Sue, Amanda and Kendra had helped her pick out at an Arlington bridal salon, stood up with their families as witnesses and took their vows for the second time in twenty-five years. "And this time, I'm going to make it stick," Matt told his bride softly just after Chaplain Printz pronounced them and they kissed tenderly.

Since everyone in the chapel was on the front rows, the couple didn't walk back down the aisle; instead, they accepted congratulations and then posed for photographs, which Jamie King had driven down from New York to take. His services were Lee and Amanda's gift to the couple, and having seen some of his work in Lee and Amanda's house, Matt and Deb knew they were getting something very special as a visual record of their second wedding day, which was twenty-five years and three days after their first wedding. "Best way in the world to celebrate our silver anniversary," Matt said. "I almost blew my chances, but this woman is wonderfully forgiving."

After Jamie took pictures at the chapel, they all drove over to the Officers' Club, where the management had set aside one of the banquet rooms for their reception. After a prime rib dinner, champagne toasts, and the ceremonial cutting of the cake, Matt and Deb left on their second honeymoon. Matt had made reservations for them at the Cumberland, which Lee and Amanda had highly recommended, but they wouldn't be able to check in until Friday afternoon, since it was high tourist season for the resort. When Matt mentioned that they would be spend the first couple of nights back at their house, Lee had offered the use of the Agency guest house in Georgetown, the same house where Jamie had stayed the night before Station One the previous week. Lee had made the arrangements for them, telling them, "You'll have the place to yourself. It's fully furnished, the kitchen is stocked, and you can leave as late or as early as you want on Friday. Here's the code that will get you in the door, and it locks automatically behind you, so there's no key to worry about."

"You young people don't need to be hanging around with us old folks," Bob Davis said. "Go out and have some fun."

At seven o'clock on a night in high summer, there was still plenty of daylight left, and although they were dressed for a wedding, no one wanted to go to a club or a movie. After some discussion, they decided to drive to one of the parks on the Arlington side of the Potomac that had once been the site of some of the perimeter defenses of Washington during the Civil War and just walk for an hour or so.

Jamie had driven his classic 1975 BMW 2002 down from New York; Kendra recognized it as one of the cars she'd seen parked outside what she now knew was the Agency guest house in Georgetown when Phillip had dropped her off for Station One the week before. He and Phillip had come to the wedding in his car, and now they all got back into it for the ride back to Arlington.

"You two can sit in the back seat and hold hands while I drive, " Jamie said.

"Thank you. To the park, James," Phillip replied.

"Very funny."

Nobody said much on the way to the park. Jamie was concentrating on his driving, and Kendra and Phillip were enjoying the luxury of being driven by an expert in a very comfortable car after the busyness of the last weeks. A sign at the park informed them that it closed an hour after sunset, but since sunset was still nearly an hour and a half away, they had plenty of time. When they got out to go walking, Phillip was surprised when Jamie, who was never without at least one camera, left them all secured in the trunk of his car.

He remarked on this to his brother and Jamie said, "There's where you're wrong, P. K. James Bishop has left his cameras in the car; James King never goes anywhere without his, just like he never goes anywhere without his weapon."

"My brother, the Secret Agent Man," Phillip said with a smile. "He looks more like Clark Kent than James Bond, but he's very, very good at what he does."

"I can certainly attest to that," Kendra said. " Once Retta Scott and I figured out that he was the ringer last week, we were really nervous because we knew he had a vote on who made the cut."

"You did fine, Kendra; you both did," Jamie assured her.

They started off down one of the paths through the park, one that Jamie said he had frequently jogged in his high school days.

"You never told me that," Phillip remarked.

"You were already at UVA, and back then, you and I were barely on speaking terms, if you recall, especially that first year when you were doing your damnedest to flunk out."

"That is true. Oh, Kendra knows; I told her all about it."

"Good."

Jamie moved forward until he was a few paces ahead of them. Phillip reached for Kendra's hand and they walked, fingers interlaced, behind Jamie. "My brother the agent always takes point," Phillip said with a chuckle.

"I heard that!" Jamie shot back, but they knew that he wasn't really annoyed.

They had been on the path about half an hour when they heard a woman scream. "Stay with Kendra," Jamie rapped out, as he took off in the direction of the scream, pistol already drawn and ready. A few seconds later, a young woman in running gear burst out of the woods. Jamie fielded her neatly, saying,

"It's all right. I'm a federal agent. My brother and his girl are over there; go stay with them. Which way did he go?"

"He's right behind me," she gasped.

"Go!" Jamie ordered, and pushed her, none too gently, toward Phillip and Kendra, who had come up at speed; Kendra was thankful that, although she was in a dress and heels, they were the sort she could run in. She moved forward so she could reach the young woman first, catching her in her arms.

"It's all right," she said, "I'm Kendra, this is Phillip, and we're with Jim."

"Abby," the woman gasped out, at the same moment Phillip said, "Abby? Abby Kozal?"

"Phillip? Oh, thank God you're here! I was running like I always do in the evenings and he was hiding in the trees. He jumped out and grabbed me, but I managed to hit him hard enough to break loose and then I just…."

She stopped as her assailant, a man in his mid-thirties in running clothes, burst out of the woods and stopped short as Jamie, in a tripod stance, weapon at the ready, shouted, "Federal agent! Stop right there!"

Of course, he didn't stop; he turned and took off the way he'd come, with Jamie in hot pursuit. "Let's get you somewhere that you can sit down," Kendra said. "You did very well, Abby, getting away from him like that."

"I just jabbed my elbow into his gut and stomped on his foot, that's all."

"Well, it worked."

There were no benches on the path, but as soon as they came to a clearing, Abby sat down on a large boulder. "You're Phillip's girlfriend?"

"Kendra Davis. Are you one of the summer interns at the Foundation?"

"Yes. I'm between my junior and senior years at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. I'm from Alliance, way out in the western part of the state; our town has fewer than 10,000 people, so when I moved to Lincoln to go to school, I thought I'd come to the big city – and then I came here. Ever heard of Carhenge? It's kind of like Stonehenge, only it's made of cars, not stones. That's what Alliance is famous for. Oh, when my daddy finds out about this, he's going to hit the ceiling and tell me I have to come home, and I just got here two weeks ago!"

They looked up as Jamie came up, but without the assailant.

"Lost him in the woods, dammit!" he said in disgust. "And you, young lady, what the hell were you doing jogging by yourself at this time of night?"

"It's the only time I have to jog, that's why, and watch your language!" she shot back. "I got away from him, Mr. Hotshot Federal Agent; it's not my fault that you didn't catch him. Why didn't you just shoot him?"

"You've been watching too much television. We don't just come out, guns blazing, like this was high noon in Tombstone," Jamie retorted furiously.

"Can we just take this someplace where Abby can get a drink of water and calm down?" Phillip asked.

"Abby? Is that your name?"

"Yes, it is, Mr. Hotshot. I'm Abigail Kozal, I'm a Thornton Foundation summer intern from Nebraska, and if you've finished shouting at me, maybe you could tell me your name."

"James King. I'm Phillip's brother."

"I can see who got the charm in the family."