Sarah's plan to clear her name comes to fruition.
Chapter 8
As Sarah fought to shake off the effects of her restless night, Zondra called her over to the computer.
"Check it out, Sarah," Zondra said excitedly. "LaBarge told my contact that the key to proving his theories about Shaw is you. He's been searching for you since you disappeared. So the question is, what do we tell him?"
Sarah pursed her lips thoughtfully and mulled it over, "Have your contact tell LaBarge he has a line on me. Have him say that he thinks he can get me to come in if there's a decent chance that I can clear my name. Have him ask for a couple documents that will help me make my case as a sign of good faith."
Zondra quickly relayed the information to her contact and the women took their morning run in a good mood. They agreed to invite Salvadore to have dinner with them that evening and enjoyed the fresh air.
When they got back from running, Zondra spent some time setting Sarah up with access to her best public and semi-public news sources before she left for her session with Gomez. Sarah was soon lost in catching up on the state of the world's geopolitics. It seemed like no time at all before Zondra returned. Sarah noticed she was moving more gingerly than normal and occasionally feeling pain.
"Rough session with Gomez?" Sarah prompted.
"The little shit kicked my ass and didn't even do me the courtesy of laughing at me," Zondra growled. "He just kept babbling about inconsequential trivia, trying to get me to engage in small talk while he owned me in every... last... fighting style. First Charles and now Gomez, I don't know how much of this my pride can take."
"Cheer up," Sarah said brightly. "I know you and I know you're always best when you're challenged. Working with Gomez is going to make you a next level badass."
"Sure, if I survive," Zondra chuckled mirthlessly. She took a long hot shower and checked her messages.
"Hey, we've got a reply from LaBarge already," Zondra crowed. Sarah watched eagerly over her shoulder as Zondra decrypted LaBarge's good faith offering. It was a long email chain between LaBarge and Shaw summarizing LaBarge's suspicions about Ring Elders and outlining Shaw's plan for the attack on the conference.
"I was hoping for breadcrumbs but it looks like he sent the smoking gun!" Sarah cried gleefully. "With LaBarge's testimony to back it up, the Gentle Hand narrative is toast."
"It looks like LaBarge is a little scared that the people who will be embarrassed when this comes to light might try to take him out. He's asking if you still have any influence with Charles. Apparently after Shaw's death no one wants to approach him and the Director wants to grill Charles on his loyalties in person. LaBarge thinks that if he can convince Charles to visit DC he'll have enough visibility that he can out Shaw without getting disappeared," Zondra narrated. "Do you think Charles would be willing to make the trip if it will clear your name?"
"I wish I had a better understanding of Chuck's relationship with the Company," Sarah sighed uncomfortably. After pondering for a long moment she added, "I just can't ask him to do that for me. I'd be OK setting up a meeting between LaBarge and Chuck here in Italy but that's as much as I'm willing to give him."
"I doubt just a meeting will give LaBarge the visibility he wants if Charles says no," Zondra sighed.
"Maybe if I meet him and drive him to the meeting I can get him on tape corroborating the email. A verifiable taped statement is almost as good as in person testimony. Can you get your hands on a wire and recording rig?" Sarah asked.
"I'm pretty sure I can requisition one from the Rome office," Zondra nodded slowly. "It's about as vanilla a request as I could make, approval should be nearly automatic."
Zondra sent a message to be forwarded to LaBarge asking when he could be in Rome and the women got a light lunch delivered. She put in a request for equipment and Sarah dashed off a note to Chuck that she wanted to meet him some place near Rome where they wouldn't be overheard. They spent the rest of the afternoon planning their strategy until it was time to dress for dinner.
The two women were escorted to a small and beautiful dining room decorated in the style of Tuscany. Salvadore was waiting for them and he pulled out their chairs politely but Sarah could tell he was angry about something.
"You had better tell us what you're angry about, Salvadore," Sarah said neutrally. "Until we understand what's bothering you the dark cloud over your head will sour our meal."
Salvadore's jaw tightened and he looked even angrier. He took several deep breaths before saying, "I spoke to my grandfather this afternoon. He told me you already know the story of how Signore came to own the estate and what passed between him, Signore, and myself."
"And this makes you angry because..." Sarah prompted.
"Because it was not his story to tell!" Salvadore exploded. "He had no right to discuss family business with strangers!"
"Did Signore explain his relationship with me and Zondra?" Sarah asked quietly.
"No, he told me that was your story to tell," Salvadore spat. "Apparently Signore has more respect for you than my grandfather has for me."
"For the two and a half years immediately before Signore came to Italy, he worked with me," Sarah began. "I was his handler, his trainer, and his friend. If things had gone a different way we might have become much more."
Salvadore stared at her in shock. Whatever he had expected it wasn't this. There was an uncomfortable silence while he tried to bring his thoughts into some semblance of order. He finally said, "So YOU were the one who trained Signore? You taught him how to fight and how to kill?"
"When I first met him and for two years afterward my job was to protect him," Sarah explained solemnly. "I did not teach his skills but I DID teach him how to use them. I was the one who gave him the order for his first kill. I did not think he would be able to do it. When he completed his mission I told him I could no longer trust him or work with him."
Salvadore closed his eyes and bowed his head as if he were in great pain. After another uncomfortable silence he admitted, "I cannot understand this. He completed his mission. He proved himself to you. Why would this make you unable to work with him?"
Sarah leaned toward him and said very firmly, "The man I had protected and loved was not a killer. I wanted to leave everything I'd ever known behind and run away with that man. When he completed his mission, he proved the man I loved was gone."
Salvadore considered her words for a long moment before responding, "Amongst the arms dealers of Napoli, killing is a rite of passage. A man is not considered part of the brotherhood until he completes this rite. Completing this rite earns a man respect. When you tell me Signore lost your respect by completing this rite, it goes against everything I've ever known."
Sarah nodded sadly, "I understand. For the people I worked with it is the same. If you cannot kill, you cannot be part of the organization. The day I made my first kill was the worst day of my life."
As Salvadore continued to gape in shock she drew near to him once more and said in a low voice, "Let me tell you a secret. The brotherhood is not really about shared respect. It is about shared shame. These men are brothers because they share the same stain on their soul. They cannot accept an unstained man into their company because the shame would be too much to bear."
A minute ticked by in silence. Zondra mimed an explosion from her head. Sarah nodded tiredly. Their dinner was delicious but the conversation was forced and stilted. It was not until the dessert course that Salvadore was finally able to say, "I'm sorry I was so angry when you first arrived. It has long been a source of pain to me that I could not become a member of the brotherhood without ending the Vico family. I felt ashamed to be in the presence of two women who had earned the respect that I could never have."
"Believe me, Salvadore, we have known MANY men who have killed and whom we have absolutely no respect for," Zondra assured him. "Sarah is right. Knowing you have never killed makes me respect you more, not less. The fact that you are making your own way of life makes you more of a man than the arms dealers who just follow orders."
"It feels surreal to think that way but I can tell that you are sincere," Salvadore said thoughtfully. "This dinner has not gone at all as I had planned."
"Well I hope you will come to believe that this is a good thing," Sarah said gently. "Sometimes a plan going catastrophically wrong leads to a better outcome than we could possibly have imagined."
After dinner Sarah had another scheduled session with Groucho.
"You're looking well. How are you feeling about your life?" Groucho asked.
"Better than I have in a long time," Sarah acknowledged. "My friend and I have a solid lead on information that could clear my name."
"Already? That's incredible!" Groucho's eyes lit up. "What do you think enabled this?"
"Working with a team," Sarah replied emphatically. "Being able to call on connections and their resources made all the difference. I never could have done this on my own."
"Resources are important, but in my experience, it takes skill to use them effectively. Have you been able to use your spymaster skills?" Groucho wondered.
Sarah thought about it before answering, "I really think I have. It was a team effort but most of the ideas in our plan came from me."
"Excellent!" Groucho enthused. "I'm glad you got the chance to have your skills validated so quickly."
They talked about Sarah's hopes for her future. After listening to her happy thoughts Groucho noted, "I can't help but notice none of your future plans involve Charles. When we first met he was central to your thoughts. Is he absent because you've resolved these issues or because you're avoiding them?"
Sarah frowned as she thought about it, "My gut feeling is that I'm avoiding him. I appreciate all he's done for me but..."
"Forget any sense of obligation or concrete practical considerations. Focus on how you feel," Groucho encouraged.
Sarah took a few deep breaths and pictured Chuck, alert to the emotions that flowed through her.
"Anger," she blinked in surprise. "I'm angry with him."
"Good!" Groucho smiled. "Don't try to justify it, just let yourself feel what you're angry about."
"Why should HE get to feel so hurt by me turning my back on him when he turned his back on me first?" Sarah blurted out. "I was willing to throw away everything I knew and everything I was good at to run away with him. I was planning to live hunted and in hiding as long as I could have him. He spent years telling me how amazing I was but when it came time to run, I wasn't amazing enough to give up his CHANCE at what I had already spent years building."
Groucho nodded solemnly. After giving her a moment to process her revelation he said, "You have a right to feel what you feel but I'd have to say that anyone who had been treated that way would have every right to be angry. Has Charles ever apologized for what he did to you?"
"Not really," Sarah sighed. "He told me he never stopped loving me and only did what he did because of my example but he NEVER really showed much remorse for his original choice. When I saw him again he had washed out of spy school so even if he HAD told me he had made the wrong choice it would have felt pretty hollow."
"And when Charles passed his red test and became a spy how did you feel about his original choice of the spy life over you?" Groucho prodded gently.
"I guess I was angry all over again. I was happy to see him suffer when he washed out after choosing the spy life over me and when he got to live the spy life after all it pissed me off," Sarah admitted.
"And how did you feel when he asked you to join him?" Groucho asked.
"I'd be DAMNED if I was going to play second fiddle to the spy life," Sarah's anger shocked her. "I loved him enough to put him above everything. If he couldn't love me that much in return I wanted no part of it. Having to help him with the thing he loved more than me would have been torture."
"All things considered I'd say that's a very mature and reasonable decision," Grouch said with quiet conviction.
Sarah's head was buzzing as she made her way back to the cottage. She had tried to forget her feelings for Chuck so long ago. She told herself she had a moment of weakness and it wouldn't happen again. But her feelings were real and by repressing them rather than deal with them she had done herself no favors. She realized she needed to sit down with Chuck and have an honest conversation and that she wasn't looking forward to it.
As Sarah returned she was met by a smiling and excited Zondra. Her contact had forwarded LaBarge's eager acceptance of their plan and willingness to be in Rome the next day. They decided that they'd need the day to set up and offered to meet him the day after. Zondra's equipment request had been approved without comment so they'd be able to pick it up as soon as they got to Rome. Chuck hadn't replied to Sarah's request but they decided that if he declined they could just tell LaBarge Chuck had accepted and must have changed his mind. They were able to arrange to take separate cars from the academy's motor pool.
Despite her jarring revelation with Groucho, Sarah slept very peacefully. She and Zondra got an early start and made it to Rome without incident. By the time they got there Chuck had accepted Sarah's request and suggested a locanda outside Rome run by a man who specialized in offering privacy with no questions asked. Sarah briefly wondered if Chuck thought she was trying arrange a tryst but quickly shrugged the thought away. If that was Chuck's plan, he was going to be disappointed. They decided Sarah would do recon on the venue while Zondra checked in with Rome Station and they'd meet at the locanda for dinner.
Sarah stopped just outside Rome for a light lunch at a cafe where she looked up the Locanda Nostra online. The website was nothing special and the reviews of the food served were decidedly mixed. Reviews of the accommodations were generally positive but very brief. The only thing the site seemed to spotlight was the pastoral locale. It wasn't the kind of place that a tourist would visit and neither hers nor Zondra's Italian was good enough for them to pass for natives so Sarah decided that they would be tourists who had booked through a fly-by-night travel agency that neglected to reserve rooms. They would be able to wander cluelessly in search of something interesting and be generally disappointed. Chuck had already booked a room where they could meet the next day and if anyone asked they would say they were meeting someone from their awful travel agency. She sent Zondra a message detailing their story and was off to see the place in person.
After arguing with the desk and having a minor meltdown about her missing reservation, she booked a room and asked for any information on offer about local points of interest. Then she scouted the immediate area. The locanda was nicely isolated with only the one road and she soon found a spot were Zondra could watch the approaches for unexpected arrivals. It took her a bit longer to find a good spot to cache the second car if they needed to make a getaway. The rest of her afternoon she watched the customers and staff to get a feel for the normal rhythm of the place. When Zondra arrived they had a mediocre dinner and went to their room. Sarah shared her findings and she and Zondra tested the recording rig, then they turned in for the night.
The next day they got up early and wired Sarah up then made for the airport. They planned to have Zondra lead her by a good distance and they verified that she would have no trouble tracking Sarah.
"Sarah! So good to see you!" Steven LaBarge said warmly as she picked him up. "I'm so glad to see you looking well."
LaBarge's face clouded with anger as he added, "I wish Shaw wasn't dead so we could see him rot in prison for what he did to you."
They packed LaBarge's travel bag into her car and set off for the meet. Steven seemed eager to talk about the past and Sarah barely had to prompt him to get the whole story recorded. Something in her was uneasy because it seemed to be going TOO well but she remembered that LaBarge was an analyst, not a field agent, so maybe his oversharing wasn't as suspicious as her gut told her it was.
As the conversation turned to office politics Steven admitted that the man he most feared would want to silence the truth about Shaw was General Merriweather. He noted that General Beckman was almost certainly facing strong pressure to retire before she was fired and replaced by one of Merriweather's proteges. Sarah let him natter on about his grievances over Congressional interference in setting priorities in the intelligence community until they reached their destination.
When they got to Locanda Nostra Sarah warned Steven that Chuck would have his own conditions to assure his security and that the negotiations might not go smoothly. LaBarge shrugged off her concerns, telling her that just by getting the meeting he had gotten much farther than anyone before him. Sarah found this a bit odd but didn't have too much time to ask him about it before they were walking into the meeting room. Just before they entered the room Sarah's earwig emitted a piercing tone that left her ears ringing and as she tore it out of her ear she found herself in the arms of two burly men who frogmarched her into the room.
Sarah felt the barrel of a gun against the back of her head and heard a voice bark, "Hands where we can see them. Any surprises and you'll be wearing your old friend's brains."
More men rushed into the room and quickly subdued Chuck. Sarah felt her arms bound tightly behind her back and saw the same happen to Chuck. Then Steven stepped forward with a very unpleasant grin, saying, "There was a very spirited debate about whether to suppress or attempt to extract the asset in your disloyal head."
LaBarge was handed a pair of sunglasses which he put on Chucks face saying, "You should be proud. The argument that even after capture you were too dangerous to risk extraction won the day."
Chuck sat perfectly still while the glasses came to life and Sarah saw the reflected flicker of rapidly changing images. She briefly saw Zondra, bound just like she was before Sarah, Chuck and Zondra were shoved into the back of separate cars and whisked away.