Chapter 4 - Scarecrow & Mrs. Scarecrow
**4247 Maplewood Drive
Thursday Night - 11:35PM**
Lee wrapped his arm around Amanda's shoulder as they walked toward his 'Vette parked at the curb. She leaned into him and rested her hand on his stomach, inhaling deeply of the cologne that still lingered on his shirt. He kissed her hair as they rounded the hood of the car and stopped at his door.
Amanda sniffled and took a deep breath, doing her best to look cool and calm when she looked up at her husband. It must not have worked, because his eyes darkened and his face changed expressions when their eyes met.
"Hey," he said in his soothing, husky voice and brushed his thumbs across her cheeks. "No more tears."
Amanda wrapped her fingers around his wrist and kissed his hand. "I'm trying. I think I've cried more in the last six hours than I have in the last six years."
"Well, it's been a rough day. For everyone. But I know the brunt of it is on you. For that I'm sorry."
Amanda shook her head. "Don't be sorry, Lee. In all of this you've been the one thing I could hang on to."
Lee smiled, two deep dimples forming in his cheeks. Amanda reached up and touched one, smiling. With a tenderness she hadn't ever felt from him before, Lee leaned down and kissed her lips. Even in its tenderness, Amanda felt her body immediately come alive. His mouth brushed over hers and she eased against his chest, letting herself melt into his embrace. Her lips parted and Lee deepened the kiss. Even in the warmth his love created, Amanda felt another sob work its way up through her. As her shoulders shook with it, Lee pulled her against him and buried his face against her throat.
"I promise you, Amanda Stetson, I will make this okay. We will make it through this."
"I've never seen Mother so angry. And Phillip! Phillip wouldn't even look at me."
"They're in shock, Amanda. Frankly, so am I to an extent. I didn't wake up this morning thinking we would be coming clean to just about everyone about just about everything."
Amanda sighed and wiped at her cheeks. "We've made quite a mess of things, haven't we?"
"Shuuuush," he whispered and kissed her cheek. "There is no denying that. But it's not unsalvageable. We'll do it. Together. As a family." He smiled as he said it. "Our family."
Amanda wrapped her arms around him and laid her cheek on his chest. "I love you so much."
He kissed her hair and rocked her back and forth. "I love you, too. I love you, too."
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**King Household
Friday Morning - Dawn**
Amanda sat on the den couch, her legs curled up into her chest and a cup of tea, long cold, rested on her knee. She watched through the window as the first tendrils of sunlight spread pink and orange streaks across the treetops outside.
She had yet to go up the stairs to her bed. Sleep had evaded her all night long. After Lee left, she spent another two hours suppressing the tears that shook her, trying to keep them quiet enough as to not disturb anyone else in the house.
In her heart, Amanda had known that her family would be angry when her deception was revealed. She knew they would wonder why so many years of lying had passed. But she hadn't been prepared for the pain and hurt she saw in her mother's eyes, and the fury in her eldest son's. Jamie had calmed down by the time they came home, but that wasn't much solace in the following hours.
She slowly lowered her legs and stood, heaviness of soul weighing her limbs down. What did all this mean? What did they do now? Did Lee just move in now that everyone knew he was her husband? Could the boys handle that? And what about the Agency? What if what Billy said was true? What if this was the end of their careers? Amanda knew she could handle it - she wouldn't like it - but she could handle it as long as Lee came home to her every night.
But what about Lee? This was the only thing he had ever been. It was in his blood. He discovered that a few years back when the truth about his parents was discovered. His father was an intelligence operative, and after he and Lee's mother married, so was she. She couldn't imagine Lee doing anything else. Being a spy - even though she knew he hated the word - was who he was. It would tear Amanda's heart out if she knew he lost that because of her.
She wanted answers, but she knew they wouldn't be soon in coming. Not today. Probably not tomorrow.
Amanda felt like she was caught in the eye of a storm. Having just survived its violent onslaught, she was in that calm place just before being sucked into it again.
There was a noise upstairs. Someone was awake.
Amanda realized, in one split second decision, she wasn't ready to face them again. They all needed time. Time to digest. Time to calm down. Time to recover from the shock. She looked around the kitchen quickly for a piece of paper, and wrote a note to her mother. Just as footsteps started down the stairs, Amanda slipped out the back door and pulled her Wagoneer down the driveway.
She didn't have to think about where she was going. Her car just seemed to know the way. As the first tendrils of pink light started over the horizon, Amanda pulled into an open spot outside Lee's apartment building. With a polite nod to the night doorman, Amada rode the elevator to his floor.
Her movements were subconscious as she flipped her keys around her keychain until she found the apartment key. The need for her husband growing exponentially, Amanda unlocked the door and slipped inside.
The apartment was quiet in the daybreak hour. Amanda dropped her keys on the foyer table and her purse on the floor, moving quickly through the living room. As she opened the bedroom door, Lee turned over in the bed to face her. The blanket slipped down to expose most of his upper body and he pushed up on his hands. He was awake, and by the look on his face, he didn't seem surprised at all to see her.
"Hi," Amanda said in a small voice.
"I hoped you'd come," Lee whispered and shifted to make room on **her** side of the bed.
She nearly fell on the mattress, immediately pressing her face into the curve of his shoulder and sighing as his arms wrapped around her. They both settled back on the sheets, drawing strength from each other's embrace. The storm was about to descend again, and they needed all the strength they could get.
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**The Agency
Friday Morning - 8:30AM**
Lee Stetson and Amanda King - correction - Amanda Stetson stepped off the closet elevator hand in hand. Their expressions were strained and they both looked tired as they walked toward the bullpen. Neither seemed to be able to ignore the glances and hushed whispers that followed them.
Had this been a normal situation, no one would have known about the 'discovered' marriage certificate and the scandal that now surrounded the Agency's best team. Just like after the unfortunate death of Junior Agent Janice Brown, the details of the situation quickly spread through the Agency - like flames on a prairie. With a few extra tidbits thrown in for good measure. In a normal situation, the secret lives of Lee Stetson and his housewife partner would remain behind closed doors. But, of course, this was not a normal situation.
Their watcher, saboteur, and peer watched from a safe distance making a valiant effort to hide their smug smile. It had been so easy. Almost too easy. It didn't matter, though. The damage was done, and they would have a hell of a time fixing it. And it would have to be fixed because there was no covering it up. That was made sure of. The entire staff might as well just say bye-bye now, because their expulsion was as good as done.
"Say good-bye to your stuffing, Scarecrow."
Lee and Amanda walked through the bullpen, and Lee felt the tangible burn of several eyes watching them as they passed. A wave of protectiveness slammed into him, and he moved his hand to Amanda's shoulder, his arm crossing behind her. He'd be damned if he'd hide anything now, since somehow everyone seemed to know something was going on.
Snatched of conversation hit his ears. Words like 'married', 'hid it', 'split them up' and 'fired' popped out of the hushed whispers.
"Lee?" Amanda said, leaning toward him. "How could everyone know already?"
"I don't know," he said, clenching his jaw. "But I'm willing to put money on whoever managed to forge that marriage certificate."
Amanda froze in her steps, bringing Lee to an abrupt stop as well. He turned and looked down at her. "Amanda?"
Her smooth brow furrowed and she tapped a slender finger against her lips. Lee recognized it as her being in deep thought, and probably on the edge of a revelation.
"Lee, we both know that you didn't write that note found on Janice, right?"
Lee nodded, "Yah."
"And Janice worked in Fabrication, right?"
Again Lee agreed.
"It's got to be someone inside the Agency doing this to us, Lee. The note was forged. The marriage certificate was forged. An agent that worked in Fabrication was killed - probably because she knew who made them, OR because she was told to make them and that person didn't want her to tell anyone. And both times, everyone in the Agency seemed to know way more information than they should have, which probably means that they themselves are spreading the rumors to put more focus on us and not something else. Something we would be seeing if we weren't so worried about - well - about everything else!"
As Amanda spoke, the ticked each point off on her fingers and her words came faster and faster as each step formed in her mind. Lee had seen this dozens of times before. Sometimes it took his wife a bit longer to get around to the point, but in cases like this, she still got there faster than anyone else. She had the mind of an agent, that was for sure. Better than some, in fact. Sometimes better than his own. This being a case in point. Lee had been so wrapped up in the recent revelations, he wasn't putting the obvious points together.
He glanced around the bullpen and raised his finger to his lips, indicating to Amanda to stop talking. "If that's the case," he said, leaning toward her. "I don't want that person to think we've figured them out."
"Oh, of course," Amanda said with a nod, and glanced around herself.
"Let's go see if Billy is in his office."
Lee rapped his knuckles on Billy's door and swung it open. The office was empty, except for Francine who sat behind Billy's desk. She glanced up, and a cold expression crossed her face.
"Billy isn't here. He had an early morning meeting," she seemed to grind out. "Probably about the two of you."
"Did he give any indication as to when he'd be back?" Lee asked.
Francine stood and collected the file she had spread across the desk. Avoiding any direct eye contact, she moved to walk past them and head for the door.
"No, he didn't," she said, reaching for the doorknob. "But I don't think I want to be you when he gets back."
"Francine," Lee called after her as she turned away.
When she met his gaze, Lee was taken back by the hurt look in her heavily lined blue eyes. "I don't think we should talk right now. Give me a few days to digest this."
"Francine," Amanda said in her soft voice. "We're really very sorry. You have no idea how sorry."
Francine's blue eyes darted between them and she sighed heavily. "I know we aren't best buddies or anything. And I'm sure I'm not the first person on your list of people to confide in. And it probably would have been easier to deal with if the license I found was correct - that you only got married six months ago. But in two years neither of you felt you could say anything? Two years?"
Lee raked his hair and dropped his chin to his chest. Obviously, Billy had filled Francine in on the facts this morning before his meeting. Yet another person they would have to eventually explain their actions to. The average Agency employee in the hall was one thing. But Francine was a long time friend and equal. Her contempt cut deep.
Before he could form some response, the phone on Billy's desk rang. Francine brushed by him, bumping his arm with her shoulder as she passed, and picked up the phone.
"Billy Melrose's office," she said in a strained voice.
Lee looked to Amanda. She had moved away to stand near a bookshelf at the back of the room and now stood with her arms crossed over her body and her head bowed low. Something tugged at his chest and he went to her, laying his hand on her shoulder.
"Hey," he said simply.
Amanda looked up at him, her fathomless brown eyes glistening. She brought her hand up to cover his and squeezed gently. Lee rubbed his thumb across her shoulder. They both smiled, and nothing else needed to be said. It was going to be a long road, and the hardest thing they had ever been through, but the decision was made and they would see it through to the end.
"Lee," Francine called. He turned back to her and she held out the phone. "It's for you. A woman named Annemarie Lipowski."
Lee gave his wife's shoulder one final squeeze before retrieving the phone from Francine. Annemarie Lipowski was a member of his 'family', so he wondered what type of information she would be calling him with. She worked at the incoming wires desk at the largest national bank in the District of Columbia and surrounding states.
"Hi Annie," he said when he held the receiver to his ear. "I hope you've got something interesting for me."
"I think maybe I do, sweetness," she purred in her slightly southern drawl. Annemarie came to DC by way of Georgia. "You remember telling me to keep an eye on Inicnam Industries?"
Lee's interest immediately perked. Inicnam Industries was a suspected front for Mancini. While Anthony Mancini was a criminal genius, his creativity did not extend to naming his front companies.
"I certainly do. Tell me something good, Annie!" Lee stood up straighter and searched for a pen and paper. Maybe this day wouldn't be a total wash after all.
"Well, money has been going in and out of the account pretty regular like. Nothing that would really stand out. You know, afew grand here and afew grand there. Until yesterday, that is."
Lee chuckled. "Annie, you're reminding me of my partner. Get to the point." He caught Amanda's eye, and she smiled. It was a damn beautiful sight.
"I thought a seven-point-four million dollar deposit into his account - by wire - from a bank in Iraq might get your attention."
Lee nearly dropped his pen. He must have had an astonished look on his face, because both Amanda and Francine moved closer, intent on watching him. He wrote the information down and saw Amanda's eyes widen as he finished. She had mastered reading his left-handed writing upside down years ago.
"Do you have a name for me, Annie?"
"Sure do. Prince Ali Ham Shambi Rahib."
He couldn't help but smile as he wrote out the information. "Annie, if I weren't already married I'd come down there and kiss you!" he said without even realizing it.
Annie whistled. "Sweetie, you're already busier than a one-armed wallpaper hanger! Does your partner - that Mrs. King - know you're married? And more importantly, does your **wife** know how sweet you are on your partner?"
Lee smiled and winked at Amanda. "She sure does. Thank you, Annie. You may have just given me the break I've been waiting for."
Lee hung up the phone and slapped the piece of paper with his fingers. "That was my contact at First National," he explained for Francine's benefit, knowing Amanda already knew most of the results of the conversation. He relayed the information Annie provided to him. "This probably means Mancini has a big shipment going out within the next twenty- four hours. And by the size of this deposit, I'd say the shipment is huge."
"What do you need?" Francine asked, the tension of moments before temporarily forgotten.
"Get me everything you can on a Prince Ali Ham Shambi Rahib of Iraq. Any connections he might have to either rebel forces or any connection he might have to Saddam Hussein."
Francine nodded and turned for the door.
"I'll look into any ships or transports leaving the area in the next twenty- four hours and see if I can find one heading for the Saudi Arabian area," Amanda stated, following Francine.
"No, Amanda. Hang on. Francine, could you look into that, too? Amanda, I have something else I need you to look into."
Francine nodded again and headed for her desk. Amanda spun back to him on the balls of her feet, her face showing the keen interest always apparent there when a case started to fall into place.
"What do you need?"
Lee sighed and placed his hands on her arms. "I need you to go down to Fabrication. Find out the last several cases Janice Bigelow was assigned to. See who gave her the assignments, and exactly what she was doing. I've been thinking about what you said. Janice Bigelow was killed because someone didn't want her to tell something she knew. And putting the attention on me was to throw everyone else off the scent."
"Where are you going to be?" she asked.
"I see a bowl of tutti fruiti in my future," Lee hinted.
Amanda smiled, glanced out the door to see if anyone was watching, and pushed up on her toes to kiss him briefly. "Tell T.P. I said hello."
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**Fabrication Department
Friday Morning - 10:07AM**
Amanda stepped through the door into the Fabrication Department that was housed on the fourth sublevel of the Agency, in a dark corner where the fluorescent lights seem to blink and shutter and fight to stay on. The walls were concrete block and brick and mortar, feeling cold and harsh.
Several workers looked up from their tasks. Some wore odd-looking magnification goggles and others peered at their work through large, round magnifying glasses. She didn't recognize most of the faces, but then again, a lot of the people in Fabrication weren't seen much in other departments.
"Can I help you with something, Mrs. King?" a young woman asked as she approached.
Amanda immediately recognized the woman's voice, if not her face, as one of the gossipers in the hall earlier in the week. If Amanda was right, she was the instigator of the conversation. The one that said Lee wanted her from the first time they met. And the one who adamantly repeated the fact that Lee was suspected of Janice's death. She did her best to hide any expression that might reveal the fact that she knew what the woman had said.
"Hi," Amanda said, adding as much perk as possible. "Yes, I hope you can."
A door off to the right opened and Efraim Beaman came out. He had worked in Fabrication for several years, but had also been involved with Amanda's formal training.
"You can go back to those defection packages, Erin, I'll help Mrs. King with anything she might need."
Amanda thought she caught a slight change in Efraim's voice when he said her name, but she wasn't sure. She thanked Erin with a nod as the girl went back to her desk.
"What can I do for you?" he asked.
"Well, actually, I'm down for Mr. Melrose," Amanda said. It was a small lie, but with a definite goal, so she forced herself to continue. "He would like a report on the types of tasks your department have taken on over the last month, who was assigned to each task, and how long each took. I think it's part of a budget review and they're making sure your department has sufficient staff."
Efraim nodded and smiled. "Certainly. We keep a log book with as much information we're allowed to. You must understand we often aren't able to record too much. National security and all."
Amanda shrugged one shoulder and brought her hands together in front of her. "Oh, of course. Whatever you can provide."
Efraim led her into his office and motioned for her to sit down. She did and he pulled off a nearby shelf a black binder. He set it down on the desk in front of her and opened it up to a date four weeks back.
"As you can see, Mrs. King," he began to say, but then paused. "I'm sorry, but I feel inclined to ask. Do you still wish to be called Mrs. King? Or would you prefer Mrs. Stetson now that, well, now that -."
Heat rushed to Amanda's cheeks. The news had apparently already traveled into the deepest corner of the Agency. She cleared her throat and avoided meeting Efraim's eyes.
"Why don't we just leave it at Amanda?"
He smiled, but it was a diminutive one at best. "Fine then, Amanda. As I was saying, as you can see we log each employees work by type of assignment, the agent who requested it, time in and time out."
Amanda nodded and skimmed her eyes over the pages. She paid little attention to the columns of the other staff members, but focused on Janice Bigelow's.
"I'm not sure how little or how much information you need."
"Would it be alright if I just looked it over for a minute or two?" Amanda asked.
"Certainly. Take all the time you need."
With that, Efraim left her alone. As soon as the door closed, Amanda flipped the pages to the last week before Janice Bigelow's death. She pulled a small notebook out of her pocket and wrote down all the assignments the deceased agent had taken on. They all seemed pretty normal Agency stuff: Foreign Passports and other forms of identification, Defection packages to help newly arriving individuals to build a life in America. Amanda herself had worked on those types of packages on occasion, before she was full time and officially partnered with Lee.
On the night of her death she had been working on a Russian Passport until about 5:30PM. She logged out the assignment as complete. Amanda stared down at the log. Something seemed odd to her. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure Efraim wasn't watching her through the small pane of glass in his door, she removed the page from the binder and held it up to the fluorescent light overhead.
Janice had logged in another assignment after the Russian Passport. But the entry had been removed. There were pens in stores with eraseable ink, but the Agency had certain chemicals that could erase even regular ink. The trace indication of the words were too light for her to read. With another glance at the door, Amanda turned the page over and set it down on the desk. She took a page from her notebook and laid in on the log page, but on the backside. Borrowing a pencil from Efraim's desk, she gingerly ran it across the blank page. She smiled as symbols began to form.
The door opened and Amanda jumped. She snatched the notepaper off the desk and slipped it into the pocket of her sweater.
"Finding everything you need Mrs. - Amanda?"
"Oh, yes!" she said, leaping to her feet. "I think I have enough information now for Mr. Melrose. Thank you so much for your help, Efraim."
"You're welcome. We always enjoy visitors down here in Fabrication. Be sure to tell Francine I said hello. Oh, and of course, Scarecrow."
Amanda nodded and moved around him to the door. "Oh, I will. I certainly will. Thank you again."
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**Georgetown Sundae Shoppe
Friday Morning - 10:45AM**
Lee pulled up to the curb outside the ice cream parlor and scanned the outside tables with their pastel colored umbrellas for a certain ex-Library of Congress employee. He smiled when he saw who he looked for, nearly hidden behind a gigantic bowl of hot fudge and marshmallow doused tutti fruiti with a mound of whipped cream and nuts on the top. Seeing the gooey creation almost made Lee's stomach turn as he weaved his way through the tables.
"Isn't it early for ice cream, TP?" he asked as he slipped into the chair beside his long time friend.
"Au contrair, my good Scarecrow," TP Aquinas said as he swirled his spoon in the melting concoction. "It is never too early or too late for ice cream. Benjamin Franklin was once quoted as saying Beer was a sign that God loved us. I think he had it wrong. Ice Cream is a much better example."
Lee laughed and shook his head. "Whatever you say, TP."
TP looked at Lee over the top of his glasses with a knowing arch of his brow. "Perhaps wedding cake is more your taste?"
"Ahhhh," Lee sighed and leaned back, folding his hands on the table. "You don't miss a thing."
"Apparently I did, or I wouldn't be six months behind the times."
Lee drew his eyebrows down in thought and leaned toward T. Percival Aquinas, the best Fact Man in DC. "TP, how did you hear? It's important."
"Why is that, Scarecrow? You know me, I usually just pick up on the scuttlebutt."
"It's important because it's wrong."
Interest widened his friend's eyes. "Is that so?"
Lee pressed his lips together and nodded slowly, hating that once again a good friend would have to find out the truth because of a lie. "TP, Amanda and I got married two years ago in February."
"Well, that **is** a horse of a different color, isn't it. And I can certainly see why you would want to know the source of such erroneous information."
"Yes. Yes, I would. What can you tell me?"
TP took a gigantic bite of his sundae and wiped his mouth with a paper napkin. "Well, I'm pretty sure my source isn't the one you're looking for. Pretty low on the tittle-tattle scale. But I'll see if I can do some backtracking for you and get back to the source. I suppose this is something you want to know right away?"
Lee nodded. "TP, I think this came from inside the Agency. And I think whoever it is had something to do with the death of Janice Bigelow, a junior agent who was murdered last week."
"I heard about that, too. Heard she was an acquaintance of yours, Scarecrow."
"Yah, well, I'm pretty sure that little tidbit came from the same person. And if they killed Janice Bigelow, I need to find out who it is. I don't like the focus he's putting on Amanda and I. Especially Amanda." Lee stared at his hands as he spoke and worked the knuckles of one into the fingers of the other.
"Seems there's more I need to hear," TP said with a leading tone.
Just thinking of the incident of the afternoon before made Lee's skin crawl and his blood heat up. "Jamie, our youngest boy, was kidnapped from his school. He was missing for a couple of hours, only to be dropped off at the Agency. His kidnapper, who I suspect was Anthony Mancini, told Jamie about what his mother and I do for a living."
"Getting too close to home," TP stated.
"Way too close. I need it to stop. Whoever it is creating false information and leaking it out to whomever will listen, needs to be stopped. They're putting my family in danger."
TP smiled and winked at Lee. "Family Man looks good on you, Lee."
Lee chuckled. "Thanks, TP."
"No thanks necessary," TP added as he delved into his ice cream again.
"Actually, TP, I've got another question for you. Have you heard anything about any hush-hush shipment leaving DC for the Middle East? Saudi Arabia or Iraq? You probably wouldn't hear about the actual product. They'd keep that too quiet. But we're looking to stop it."
TP rocked in his chair and adjusted his hat. "Well, now, if someone is taking something out of DC, I haven't heard about it. And if that's the case, they're very good and keeping a secret."
"Yah, well, they're keeping all the wrong secrets."
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**Q Bureau
Friday Afternoon - 12:30PM**
Amanda scanned the computer print out Francine had left on her desk while she was down in Fabrication. It was a print out of all forms of export leaving the District for the next two days. She had been reading over it for nearly two hours and her eyes were beginning to cross. The dull headache that had sat behind her eyes since the night before was now a pounding drumbeat that went straight down her neck and tied her shoulders into knots.
She realized one major cause of the problem was the stress of the last twenty-four hours, but another part was not eating since lunch the day before. Except for the tea she drank during the night. Not nearly enough to provide any sustenance. As if triggered by the thought, her stomach rumbled and clamored for her attention.
Amanda shook her head and tried to focus again on the printout. She had taken every ship and transport leaving the area, followed it to it's next destination, and then tried to follow all the possibilities there to find some combination that might somehow ultimately end up in Iraq. There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Getting shipments from America to most countries in the Middle East was nearly impossible. If Mancini was doing it, he had to be using one of those transporter things she remembered from Start Trek when she was a kid.
There was a sharp rap on the office door window, and it immediately opened. Francine swept in with her usual overbearing presence.
"Is Lee back yet?" she asked shortly.
Amanda leaned back in her chair, thankful for the momentary reprieve even if it was Francine. "No, but I would imagine he'll be back any time now."
"Oh," the blonde woman said and rolled her blue eyes. "Well, I guess I can wait until he gets back."
"Is it something about the Prince?"
"Yah, but I'll just wait."
"You can tell me, Francine. I can get to work on whatever you found out until he gets back." Amanda knew Francine had a tendency to forget that she was now a full-fledged, full-time Agent and Lee's official partner.
Francine sighed, as if resigning herself to telling Amanda whatever she had discovered. Just as she was about to drop on Amanda's desk the papers cradled in the bend of her arm, the door opened again.
"Hey, pretty lady! I've got lunch!" Lee said as he swept in, stopping with his hand on the doorknob and the other holding up a takeout bag from the Blue Fox. "Oh, hi Francine."
Francine hummed before speaking. "Hi, yourself. The Blue Fox, huh? I seem to recall being condemned for my preference for that particular establishment."
Amanda stood and took the bag from him, deeply inhaling the delicious scent of Chicken Cordon Bleu. "Thank you, sweetheart. I'm starving."
"There's enough for three, Francine," Lee added.
"No, that's okay," she said with a sarcastic tone. "I just wanted to pass on what information I found."
Amanda paid attention, but was much more interested in the tantalizing aromas drifting from the white bag that now sat on the corner of her desk. Lee stepped beside her and his hand slipped to her back as he faced Francine.
"What did you find out?"
Francine set the papers on Amanda's desk and leaned her palms into the edge. "Not much. Prince Ali Ham Shambi Rahib has a muted connection to enemy factions, at best. He is the fourteenth son of a brother to Saddam Hussein's top General."
"Fourteenth son?" Amanda said with shock.
Francine made a sound somewhere between a snort and a chuckle. "Families of that size are not uncommon among Middle East royals, Amanda. It's not hard when you have five or six wives and a handful of mistresses. There are a total of twenty-three children in the Rahib family, to date. I myself once had a brief yet fiery affair with the second son of an Afghani prince," she said fondly.
Amanda did all she could to refrain from puffing a breath out her lips and rolling her eyes at Francine's latest romantic tale.
"Other than that, nothing much to tell. Ali Ham is not politically active. He doesn't move in political circles. He doesn't seem to have any reason to purchase weapons in mass quantity."
"Damn it," Lee cursed and picked up the papers Francine had deposited. "Another damn dead end."
"Where is he now?" Amanda asked. "Is he in Iraq?"
"My intelligence tells me he's currently at one of his many estates just outside of Venice."
"Venice, Italy?"
"Yes, Amanda, that Venice. I don't think it's Venice, New York."
Amanda dropped in her chair and thumbed madly through her own stack of printouts. Alarms wnt off in her head, and if she could ignore the smell of lunch long enough, she might be able to put it together.
"What's the matter, Amanda?" Lee asked, leaning down to look over her shoulder.
She held up a hand and shushed him, only catching out of the corner of her eye the amusing glance Francine threw his way. Amanda snatched up a highlighting pen from her desk and began marking different referenced transport ships on several pages. On the final page, she jabbed her finger triumphantly against the paper.
"Aha!" she proclaimed.
"What, Amanda? What have you got?" her husband asked again.
"Dog biscuits."
"Dog biscuits?" Francine said in her typical 'what on earth is she talking about now' annoyance.
"I remembered seeing something about Venice, and I think I know how Mancini is planning on getting the weapons out of the country."
Lee bounced his hand in the air, silently asking her to proceed. Amanda picked the papers up and balanced them on her arm as she explained.
"Okay, there is a container ship loaded with dog biscuits leaving DC tonight with SA Brazil Transport."
"Lee, this is pointless," Francine tried to say.
"Now, wait a minute!" she said, holding up a finger and almost dropping the printouts. She pointed to one of the areas she highlighted. "The transport is going from here to Miami and from Miami to Fortaleza, Brazil - its home port - with a stop in Antigua and Barbuda."
"Amanda, we're talking Iraq not Brazil," Francine began.
"Hang on, Francine. Let her finish," Lee said. Amanda could hear in his voice he was getting annoyed at Francine's interruptions.
"Well, just about the time the SA Brazil Transport, a cargo ship from Libreville, Gabon will be making it's final drop and heading back to Africa." Before Francine could interrupt again, Amanda pushed forward. "Another transport in Gabon is then scheduled to leave the Gulf of Guinea and head around Cape Verde to Tangier, Morocco. An Italian transport, owned by a Venician import/export company is leaving Morocco three days after the Gabon ship reaches Tangier and returning to Venice. So, in theory, Prince Ali Ham Shambi Rahib could have his shipment leaving DC tonight in approximately three months."
When she finally took a breath and looked from her various shipping manifests to Lee and Francine, Lee had a wide and proud smile on his face. Their eyes met and he winked at her.
"Okay, I'm pretty sure I followed all that," Francine said with a tilted nod.
Lee pressed his hand to her back and rubbed up and down her spine. "I followed it, and it was brilliant. I don't think even the best computer correlation program would have come up with those connections."
Francine moaned. "You two belong together, you know that? Only you, Lee, can appreciate such longwinded ramblings and call them brilliant. How do you manage to live with that day in and day out?"
Lee smiled down at her, and Amanda felt pride in his pride for her.
"It's easier than you think."
Francine rolled her eyes again. "Okay, we know how it's getting there. But where is it leaving from?"
Amanda flipped back to her first page. "Dock 47B. Tonight."
Lee tapped the paper with his knuckles. "Then that's where I'm going to be. Mancini likes to see the really big shipments off himself."
"I'll go tell Billy," Francine said, heading for the door. "We'll put together a tactics team and be ready. You two enjoy your lunch."
As soon as Francine was gone, Amanda was surprised when Lee wrapped his arms around her and devoured her lips in a deep, powerful kiss. When she was able to collect her wits and fully give in to the kiss, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pushed her fingers into his hair. A low hum vibrated between their lips. She gasped for air when Lee finally broke away.
"What was that for?" she asked.
"For being the most incredible agent I have ever known. Your mind might take an indirect route sometimes, but you're still more likely to get there faster than anyone I know. And most importantly because I love you."
Lunch was forgotten as Amanda smiled and pulled her husband back down to her for another kiss. The door opened again and Francine stuck her head in.
"Lee, Billy wants - oh, good lord," she moaned.
Lee chuckled, and his laugh echoed against her body as he held her close and made no move to let go. "What does Billy want?"
"He wants you in his office. Now. And Dr. Smythe is with him."
Lee looked down at her, and Amanda made an unpleasant face. "Do we make a run for it?" she asked, only half joking.
"I wouldn't," Francine interjected. "Dr. Smythe ordered Mrs. Marsten to not let you leave. You know how she can be with a semi-automatic."
Amanda slowly lowered her arms, her fingers skimming Lee's lapel, while a feeling of dread sank into her stomach. Suddenly she wasn't the least bit hungry. This could be it. The end. Smythe could demand their badges and have them escourted from the building - or worse.
Holding her gaze, Lee laced his fingers with hers and brought her hand up to kiss her knuckles. He smiled, but she saw in it that he thought the same things she did.
"Lead the way, Francine. We're ready."
**4247 Maplewood Drive
Thursday Night - 11:35PM**
Lee wrapped his arm around Amanda's shoulder as they walked toward his 'Vette parked at the curb. She leaned into him and rested her hand on his stomach, inhaling deeply of the cologne that still lingered on his shirt. He kissed her hair as they rounded the hood of the car and stopped at his door.
Amanda sniffled and took a deep breath, doing her best to look cool and calm when she looked up at her husband. It must not have worked, because his eyes darkened and his face changed expressions when their eyes met.
"Hey," he said in his soothing, husky voice and brushed his thumbs across her cheeks. "No more tears."
Amanda wrapped her fingers around his wrist and kissed his hand. "I'm trying. I think I've cried more in the last six hours than I have in the last six years."
"Well, it's been a rough day. For everyone. But I know the brunt of it is on you. For that I'm sorry."
Amanda shook her head. "Don't be sorry, Lee. In all of this you've been the one thing I could hang on to."
Lee smiled, two deep dimples forming in his cheeks. Amanda reached up and touched one, smiling. With a tenderness she hadn't ever felt from him before, Lee leaned down and kissed her lips. Even in its tenderness, Amanda felt her body immediately come alive. His mouth brushed over hers and she eased against his chest, letting herself melt into his embrace. Her lips parted and Lee deepened the kiss. Even in the warmth his love created, Amanda felt another sob work its way up through her. As her shoulders shook with it, Lee pulled her against him and buried his face against her throat.
"I promise you, Amanda Stetson, I will make this okay. We will make it through this."
"I've never seen Mother so angry. And Phillip! Phillip wouldn't even look at me."
"They're in shock, Amanda. Frankly, so am I to an extent. I didn't wake up this morning thinking we would be coming clean to just about everyone about just about everything."
Amanda sighed and wiped at her cheeks. "We've made quite a mess of things, haven't we?"
"Shuuuush," he whispered and kissed her cheek. "There is no denying that. But it's not unsalvageable. We'll do it. Together. As a family." He smiled as he said it. "Our family."
Amanda wrapped her arms around him and laid her cheek on his chest. "I love you so much."
He kissed her hair and rocked her back and forth. "I love you, too. I love you, too."
SMK ~~~ SMK ~~~ SMK ~~~ SMK
**King Household
Friday Morning - Dawn**
Amanda sat on the den couch, her legs curled up into her chest and a cup of tea, long cold, rested on her knee. She watched through the window as the first tendrils of sunlight spread pink and orange streaks across the treetops outside.
She had yet to go up the stairs to her bed. Sleep had evaded her all night long. After Lee left, she spent another two hours suppressing the tears that shook her, trying to keep them quiet enough as to not disturb anyone else in the house.
In her heart, Amanda had known that her family would be angry when her deception was revealed. She knew they would wonder why so many years of lying had passed. But she hadn't been prepared for the pain and hurt she saw in her mother's eyes, and the fury in her eldest son's. Jamie had calmed down by the time they came home, but that wasn't much solace in the following hours.
She slowly lowered her legs and stood, heaviness of soul weighing her limbs down. What did all this mean? What did they do now? Did Lee just move in now that everyone knew he was her husband? Could the boys handle that? And what about the Agency? What if what Billy said was true? What if this was the end of their careers? Amanda knew she could handle it - she wouldn't like it - but she could handle it as long as Lee came home to her every night.
But what about Lee? This was the only thing he had ever been. It was in his blood. He discovered that a few years back when the truth about his parents was discovered. His father was an intelligence operative, and after he and Lee's mother married, so was she. She couldn't imagine Lee doing anything else. Being a spy - even though she knew he hated the word - was who he was. It would tear Amanda's heart out if she knew he lost that because of her.
She wanted answers, but she knew they wouldn't be soon in coming. Not today. Probably not tomorrow.
Amanda felt like she was caught in the eye of a storm. Having just survived its violent onslaught, she was in that calm place just before being sucked into it again.
There was a noise upstairs. Someone was awake.
Amanda realized, in one split second decision, she wasn't ready to face them again. They all needed time. Time to digest. Time to calm down. Time to recover from the shock. She looked around the kitchen quickly for a piece of paper, and wrote a note to her mother. Just as footsteps started down the stairs, Amanda slipped out the back door and pulled her Wagoneer down the driveway.
She didn't have to think about where she was going. Her car just seemed to know the way. As the first tendrils of pink light started over the horizon, Amanda pulled into an open spot outside Lee's apartment building. With a polite nod to the night doorman, Amada rode the elevator to his floor.
Her movements were subconscious as she flipped her keys around her keychain until she found the apartment key. The need for her husband growing exponentially, Amanda unlocked the door and slipped inside.
The apartment was quiet in the daybreak hour. Amanda dropped her keys on the foyer table and her purse on the floor, moving quickly through the living room. As she opened the bedroom door, Lee turned over in the bed to face her. The blanket slipped down to expose most of his upper body and he pushed up on his hands. He was awake, and by the look on his face, he didn't seem surprised at all to see her.
"Hi," Amanda said in a small voice.
"I hoped you'd come," Lee whispered and shifted to make room on **her** side of the bed.
She nearly fell on the mattress, immediately pressing her face into the curve of his shoulder and sighing as his arms wrapped around her. They both settled back on the sheets, drawing strength from each other's embrace. The storm was about to descend again, and they needed all the strength they could get.
SMK ~~~ SMK ~~~ SMK ~~~ SMK
**The Agency
Friday Morning - 8:30AM**
Lee Stetson and Amanda King - correction - Amanda Stetson stepped off the closet elevator hand in hand. Their expressions were strained and they both looked tired as they walked toward the bullpen. Neither seemed to be able to ignore the glances and hushed whispers that followed them.
Had this been a normal situation, no one would have known about the 'discovered' marriage certificate and the scandal that now surrounded the Agency's best team. Just like after the unfortunate death of Junior Agent Janice Brown, the details of the situation quickly spread through the Agency - like flames on a prairie. With a few extra tidbits thrown in for good measure. In a normal situation, the secret lives of Lee Stetson and his housewife partner would remain behind closed doors. But, of course, this was not a normal situation.
Their watcher, saboteur, and peer watched from a safe distance making a valiant effort to hide their smug smile. It had been so easy. Almost too easy. It didn't matter, though. The damage was done, and they would have a hell of a time fixing it. And it would have to be fixed because there was no covering it up. That was made sure of. The entire staff might as well just say bye-bye now, because their expulsion was as good as done.
"Say good-bye to your stuffing, Scarecrow."
Lee and Amanda walked through the bullpen, and Lee felt the tangible burn of several eyes watching them as they passed. A wave of protectiveness slammed into him, and he moved his hand to Amanda's shoulder, his arm crossing behind her. He'd be damned if he'd hide anything now, since somehow everyone seemed to know something was going on.
Snatched of conversation hit his ears. Words like 'married', 'hid it', 'split them up' and 'fired' popped out of the hushed whispers.
"Lee?" Amanda said, leaning toward him. "How could everyone know already?"
"I don't know," he said, clenching his jaw. "But I'm willing to put money on whoever managed to forge that marriage certificate."
Amanda froze in her steps, bringing Lee to an abrupt stop as well. He turned and looked down at her. "Amanda?"
Her smooth brow furrowed and she tapped a slender finger against her lips. Lee recognized it as her being in deep thought, and probably on the edge of a revelation.
"Lee, we both know that you didn't write that note found on Janice, right?"
Lee nodded, "Yah."
"And Janice worked in Fabrication, right?"
Again Lee agreed.
"It's got to be someone inside the Agency doing this to us, Lee. The note was forged. The marriage certificate was forged. An agent that worked in Fabrication was killed - probably because she knew who made them, OR because she was told to make them and that person didn't want her to tell anyone. And both times, everyone in the Agency seemed to know way more information than they should have, which probably means that they themselves are spreading the rumors to put more focus on us and not something else. Something we would be seeing if we weren't so worried about - well - about everything else!"
As Amanda spoke, the ticked each point off on her fingers and her words came faster and faster as each step formed in her mind. Lee had seen this dozens of times before. Sometimes it took his wife a bit longer to get around to the point, but in cases like this, she still got there faster than anyone else. She had the mind of an agent, that was for sure. Better than some, in fact. Sometimes better than his own. This being a case in point. Lee had been so wrapped up in the recent revelations, he wasn't putting the obvious points together.
He glanced around the bullpen and raised his finger to his lips, indicating to Amanda to stop talking. "If that's the case," he said, leaning toward her. "I don't want that person to think we've figured them out."
"Oh, of course," Amanda said with a nod, and glanced around herself.
"Let's go see if Billy is in his office."
Lee rapped his knuckles on Billy's door and swung it open. The office was empty, except for Francine who sat behind Billy's desk. She glanced up, and a cold expression crossed her face.
"Billy isn't here. He had an early morning meeting," she seemed to grind out. "Probably about the two of you."
"Did he give any indication as to when he'd be back?" Lee asked.
Francine stood and collected the file she had spread across the desk. Avoiding any direct eye contact, she moved to walk past them and head for the door.
"No, he didn't," she said, reaching for the doorknob. "But I don't think I want to be you when he gets back."
"Francine," Lee called after her as she turned away.
When she met his gaze, Lee was taken back by the hurt look in her heavily lined blue eyes. "I don't think we should talk right now. Give me a few days to digest this."
"Francine," Amanda said in her soft voice. "We're really very sorry. You have no idea how sorry."
Francine's blue eyes darted between them and she sighed heavily. "I know we aren't best buddies or anything. And I'm sure I'm not the first person on your list of people to confide in. And it probably would have been easier to deal with if the license I found was correct - that you only got married six months ago. But in two years neither of you felt you could say anything? Two years?"
Lee raked his hair and dropped his chin to his chest. Obviously, Billy had filled Francine in on the facts this morning before his meeting. Yet another person they would have to eventually explain their actions to. The average Agency employee in the hall was one thing. But Francine was a long time friend and equal. Her contempt cut deep.
Before he could form some response, the phone on Billy's desk rang. Francine brushed by him, bumping his arm with her shoulder as she passed, and picked up the phone.
"Billy Melrose's office," she said in a strained voice.
Lee looked to Amanda. She had moved away to stand near a bookshelf at the back of the room and now stood with her arms crossed over her body and her head bowed low. Something tugged at his chest and he went to her, laying his hand on her shoulder.
"Hey," he said simply.
Amanda looked up at him, her fathomless brown eyes glistening. She brought her hand up to cover his and squeezed gently. Lee rubbed his thumb across her shoulder. They both smiled, and nothing else needed to be said. It was going to be a long road, and the hardest thing they had ever been through, but the decision was made and they would see it through to the end.
"Lee," Francine called. He turned back to her and she held out the phone. "It's for you. A woman named Annemarie Lipowski."
Lee gave his wife's shoulder one final squeeze before retrieving the phone from Francine. Annemarie Lipowski was a member of his 'family', so he wondered what type of information she would be calling him with. She worked at the incoming wires desk at the largest national bank in the District of Columbia and surrounding states.
"Hi Annie," he said when he held the receiver to his ear. "I hope you've got something interesting for me."
"I think maybe I do, sweetness," she purred in her slightly southern drawl. Annemarie came to DC by way of Georgia. "You remember telling me to keep an eye on Inicnam Industries?"
Lee's interest immediately perked. Inicnam Industries was a suspected front for Mancini. While Anthony Mancini was a criminal genius, his creativity did not extend to naming his front companies.
"I certainly do. Tell me something good, Annie!" Lee stood up straighter and searched for a pen and paper. Maybe this day wouldn't be a total wash after all.
"Well, money has been going in and out of the account pretty regular like. Nothing that would really stand out. You know, afew grand here and afew grand there. Until yesterday, that is."
Lee chuckled. "Annie, you're reminding me of my partner. Get to the point." He caught Amanda's eye, and she smiled. It was a damn beautiful sight.
"I thought a seven-point-four million dollar deposit into his account - by wire - from a bank in Iraq might get your attention."
Lee nearly dropped his pen. He must have had an astonished look on his face, because both Amanda and Francine moved closer, intent on watching him. He wrote the information down and saw Amanda's eyes widen as he finished. She had mastered reading his left-handed writing upside down years ago.
"Do you have a name for me, Annie?"
"Sure do. Prince Ali Ham Shambi Rahib."
He couldn't help but smile as he wrote out the information. "Annie, if I weren't already married I'd come down there and kiss you!" he said without even realizing it.
Annie whistled. "Sweetie, you're already busier than a one-armed wallpaper hanger! Does your partner - that Mrs. King - know you're married? And more importantly, does your **wife** know how sweet you are on your partner?"
Lee smiled and winked at Amanda. "She sure does. Thank you, Annie. You may have just given me the break I've been waiting for."
Lee hung up the phone and slapped the piece of paper with his fingers. "That was my contact at First National," he explained for Francine's benefit, knowing Amanda already knew most of the results of the conversation. He relayed the information Annie provided to him. "This probably means Mancini has a big shipment going out within the next twenty- four hours. And by the size of this deposit, I'd say the shipment is huge."
"What do you need?" Francine asked, the tension of moments before temporarily forgotten.
"Get me everything you can on a Prince Ali Ham Shambi Rahib of Iraq. Any connections he might have to either rebel forces or any connection he might have to Saddam Hussein."
Francine nodded and turned for the door.
"I'll look into any ships or transports leaving the area in the next twenty- four hours and see if I can find one heading for the Saudi Arabian area," Amanda stated, following Francine.
"No, Amanda. Hang on. Francine, could you look into that, too? Amanda, I have something else I need you to look into."
Francine nodded again and headed for her desk. Amanda spun back to him on the balls of her feet, her face showing the keen interest always apparent there when a case started to fall into place.
"What do you need?"
Lee sighed and placed his hands on her arms. "I need you to go down to Fabrication. Find out the last several cases Janice Bigelow was assigned to. See who gave her the assignments, and exactly what she was doing. I've been thinking about what you said. Janice Bigelow was killed because someone didn't want her to tell something she knew. And putting the attention on me was to throw everyone else off the scent."
"Where are you going to be?" she asked.
"I see a bowl of tutti fruiti in my future," Lee hinted.
Amanda smiled, glanced out the door to see if anyone was watching, and pushed up on her toes to kiss him briefly. "Tell T.P. I said hello."
SMK ~~~ SMK ~~~ SMK ~~~ SMK
**Fabrication Department
Friday Morning - 10:07AM**
Amanda stepped through the door into the Fabrication Department that was housed on the fourth sublevel of the Agency, in a dark corner where the fluorescent lights seem to blink and shutter and fight to stay on. The walls were concrete block and brick and mortar, feeling cold and harsh.
Several workers looked up from their tasks. Some wore odd-looking magnification goggles and others peered at their work through large, round magnifying glasses. She didn't recognize most of the faces, but then again, a lot of the people in Fabrication weren't seen much in other departments.
"Can I help you with something, Mrs. King?" a young woman asked as she approached.
Amanda immediately recognized the woman's voice, if not her face, as one of the gossipers in the hall earlier in the week. If Amanda was right, she was the instigator of the conversation. The one that said Lee wanted her from the first time they met. And the one who adamantly repeated the fact that Lee was suspected of Janice's death. She did her best to hide any expression that might reveal the fact that she knew what the woman had said.
"Hi," Amanda said, adding as much perk as possible. "Yes, I hope you can."
A door off to the right opened and Efraim Beaman came out. He had worked in Fabrication for several years, but had also been involved with Amanda's formal training.
"You can go back to those defection packages, Erin, I'll help Mrs. King with anything she might need."
Amanda thought she caught a slight change in Efraim's voice when he said her name, but she wasn't sure. She thanked Erin with a nod as the girl went back to her desk.
"What can I do for you?" he asked.
"Well, actually, I'm down for Mr. Melrose," Amanda said. It was a small lie, but with a definite goal, so she forced herself to continue. "He would like a report on the types of tasks your department have taken on over the last month, who was assigned to each task, and how long each took. I think it's part of a budget review and they're making sure your department has sufficient staff."
Efraim nodded and smiled. "Certainly. We keep a log book with as much information we're allowed to. You must understand we often aren't able to record too much. National security and all."
Amanda shrugged one shoulder and brought her hands together in front of her. "Oh, of course. Whatever you can provide."
Efraim led her into his office and motioned for her to sit down. She did and he pulled off a nearby shelf a black binder. He set it down on the desk in front of her and opened it up to a date four weeks back.
"As you can see, Mrs. King," he began to say, but then paused. "I'm sorry, but I feel inclined to ask. Do you still wish to be called Mrs. King? Or would you prefer Mrs. Stetson now that, well, now that -."
Heat rushed to Amanda's cheeks. The news had apparently already traveled into the deepest corner of the Agency. She cleared her throat and avoided meeting Efraim's eyes.
"Why don't we just leave it at Amanda?"
He smiled, but it was a diminutive one at best. "Fine then, Amanda. As I was saying, as you can see we log each employees work by type of assignment, the agent who requested it, time in and time out."
Amanda nodded and skimmed her eyes over the pages. She paid little attention to the columns of the other staff members, but focused on Janice Bigelow's.
"I'm not sure how little or how much information you need."
"Would it be alright if I just looked it over for a minute or two?" Amanda asked.
"Certainly. Take all the time you need."
With that, Efraim left her alone. As soon as the door closed, Amanda flipped the pages to the last week before Janice Bigelow's death. She pulled a small notebook out of her pocket and wrote down all the assignments the deceased agent had taken on. They all seemed pretty normal Agency stuff: Foreign Passports and other forms of identification, Defection packages to help newly arriving individuals to build a life in America. Amanda herself had worked on those types of packages on occasion, before she was full time and officially partnered with Lee.
On the night of her death she had been working on a Russian Passport until about 5:30PM. She logged out the assignment as complete. Amanda stared down at the log. Something seemed odd to her. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure Efraim wasn't watching her through the small pane of glass in his door, she removed the page from the binder and held it up to the fluorescent light overhead.
Janice had logged in another assignment after the Russian Passport. But the entry had been removed. There were pens in stores with eraseable ink, but the Agency had certain chemicals that could erase even regular ink. The trace indication of the words were too light for her to read. With another glance at the door, Amanda turned the page over and set it down on the desk. She took a page from her notebook and laid in on the log page, but on the backside. Borrowing a pencil from Efraim's desk, she gingerly ran it across the blank page. She smiled as symbols began to form.
The door opened and Amanda jumped. She snatched the notepaper off the desk and slipped it into the pocket of her sweater.
"Finding everything you need Mrs. - Amanda?"
"Oh, yes!" she said, leaping to her feet. "I think I have enough information now for Mr. Melrose. Thank you so much for your help, Efraim."
"You're welcome. We always enjoy visitors down here in Fabrication. Be sure to tell Francine I said hello. Oh, and of course, Scarecrow."
Amanda nodded and moved around him to the door. "Oh, I will. I certainly will. Thank you again."
SMK ~~~ SMK ~~~ SMK ~~~ SMK
**Georgetown Sundae Shoppe
Friday Morning - 10:45AM**
Lee pulled up to the curb outside the ice cream parlor and scanned the outside tables with their pastel colored umbrellas for a certain ex-Library of Congress employee. He smiled when he saw who he looked for, nearly hidden behind a gigantic bowl of hot fudge and marshmallow doused tutti fruiti with a mound of whipped cream and nuts on the top. Seeing the gooey creation almost made Lee's stomach turn as he weaved his way through the tables.
"Isn't it early for ice cream, TP?" he asked as he slipped into the chair beside his long time friend.
"Au contrair, my good Scarecrow," TP Aquinas said as he swirled his spoon in the melting concoction. "It is never too early or too late for ice cream. Benjamin Franklin was once quoted as saying Beer was a sign that God loved us. I think he had it wrong. Ice Cream is a much better example."
Lee laughed and shook his head. "Whatever you say, TP."
TP looked at Lee over the top of his glasses with a knowing arch of his brow. "Perhaps wedding cake is more your taste?"
"Ahhhh," Lee sighed and leaned back, folding his hands on the table. "You don't miss a thing."
"Apparently I did, or I wouldn't be six months behind the times."
Lee drew his eyebrows down in thought and leaned toward T. Percival Aquinas, the best Fact Man in DC. "TP, how did you hear? It's important."
"Why is that, Scarecrow? You know me, I usually just pick up on the scuttlebutt."
"It's important because it's wrong."
Interest widened his friend's eyes. "Is that so?"
Lee pressed his lips together and nodded slowly, hating that once again a good friend would have to find out the truth because of a lie. "TP, Amanda and I got married two years ago in February."
"Well, that **is** a horse of a different color, isn't it. And I can certainly see why you would want to know the source of such erroneous information."
"Yes. Yes, I would. What can you tell me?"
TP took a gigantic bite of his sundae and wiped his mouth with a paper napkin. "Well, I'm pretty sure my source isn't the one you're looking for. Pretty low on the tittle-tattle scale. But I'll see if I can do some backtracking for you and get back to the source. I suppose this is something you want to know right away?"
Lee nodded. "TP, I think this came from inside the Agency. And I think whoever it is had something to do with the death of Janice Bigelow, a junior agent who was murdered last week."
"I heard about that, too. Heard she was an acquaintance of yours, Scarecrow."
"Yah, well, I'm pretty sure that little tidbit came from the same person. And if they killed Janice Bigelow, I need to find out who it is. I don't like the focus he's putting on Amanda and I. Especially Amanda." Lee stared at his hands as he spoke and worked the knuckles of one into the fingers of the other.
"Seems there's more I need to hear," TP said with a leading tone.
Just thinking of the incident of the afternoon before made Lee's skin crawl and his blood heat up. "Jamie, our youngest boy, was kidnapped from his school. He was missing for a couple of hours, only to be dropped off at the Agency. His kidnapper, who I suspect was Anthony Mancini, told Jamie about what his mother and I do for a living."
"Getting too close to home," TP stated.
"Way too close. I need it to stop. Whoever it is creating false information and leaking it out to whomever will listen, needs to be stopped. They're putting my family in danger."
TP smiled and winked at Lee. "Family Man looks good on you, Lee."
Lee chuckled. "Thanks, TP."
"No thanks necessary," TP added as he delved into his ice cream again.
"Actually, TP, I've got another question for you. Have you heard anything about any hush-hush shipment leaving DC for the Middle East? Saudi Arabia or Iraq? You probably wouldn't hear about the actual product. They'd keep that too quiet. But we're looking to stop it."
TP rocked in his chair and adjusted his hat. "Well, now, if someone is taking something out of DC, I haven't heard about it. And if that's the case, they're very good and keeping a secret."
"Yah, well, they're keeping all the wrong secrets."
SMK ~~~ SMK ~~~ SMK ~~~ SMK
**Q Bureau
Friday Afternoon - 12:30PM**
Amanda scanned the computer print out Francine had left on her desk while she was down in Fabrication. It was a print out of all forms of export leaving the District for the next two days. She had been reading over it for nearly two hours and her eyes were beginning to cross. The dull headache that had sat behind her eyes since the night before was now a pounding drumbeat that went straight down her neck and tied her shoulders into knots.
She realized one major cause of the problem was the stress of the last twenty-four hours, but another part was not eating since lunch the day before. Except for the tea she drank during the night. Not nearly enough to provide any sustenance. As if triggered by the thought, her stomach rumbled and clamored for her attention.
Amanda shook her head and tried to focus again on the printout. She had taken every ship and transport leaving the area, followed it to it's next destination, and then tried to follow all the possibilities there to find some combination that might somehow ultimately end up in Iraq. There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. Getting shipments from America to most countries in the Middle East was nearly impossible. If Mancini was doing it, he had to be using one of those transporter things she remembered from Start Trek when she was a kid.
There was a sharp rap on the office door window, and it immediately opened. Francine swept in with her usual overbearing presence.
"Is Lee back yet?" she asked shortly.
Amanda leaned back in her chair, thankful for the momentary reprieve even if it was Francine. "No, but I would imagine he'll be back any time now."
"Oh," the blonde woman said and rolled her blue eyes. "Well, I guess I can wait until he gets back."
"Is it something about the Prince?"
"Yah, but I'll just wait."
"You can tell me, Francine. I can get to work on whatever you found out until he gets back." Amanda knew Francine had a tendency to forget that she was now a full-fledged, full-time Agent and Lee's official partner.
Francine sighed, as if resigning herself to telling Amanda whatever she had discovered. Just as she was about to drop on Amanda's desk the papers cradled in the bend of her arm, the door opened again.
"Hey, pretty lady! I've got lunch!" Lee said as he swept in, stopping with his hand on the doorknob and the other holding up a takeout bag from the Blue Fox. "Oh, hi Francine."
Francine hummed before speaking. "Hi, yourself. The Blue Fox, huh? I seem to recall being condemned for my preference for that particular establishment."
Amanda stood and took the bag from him, deeply inhaling the delicious scent of Chicken Cordon Bleu. "Thank you, sweetheart. I'm starving."
"There's enough for three, Francine," Lee added.
"No, that's okay," she said with a sarcastic tone. "I just wanted to pass on what information I found."
Amanda paid attention, but was much more interested in the tantalizing aromas drifting from the white bag that now sat on the corner of her desk. Lee stepped beside her and his hand slipped to her back as he faced Francine.
"What did you find out?"
Francine set the papers on Amanda's desk and leaned her palms into the edge. "Not much. Prince Ali Ham Shambi Rahib has a muted connection to enemy factions, at best. He is the fourteenth son of a brother to Saddam Hussein's top General."
"Fourteenth son?" Amanda said with shock.
Francine made a sound somewhere between a snort and a chuckle. "Families of that size are not uncommon among Middle East royals, Amanda. It's not hard when you have five or six wives and a handful of mistresses. There are a total of twenty-three children in the Rahib family, to date. I myself once had a brief yet fiery affair with the second son of an Afghani prince," she said fondly.
Amanda did all she could to refrain from puffing a breath out her lips and rolling her eyes at Francine's latest romantic tale.
"Other than that, nothing much to tell. Ali Ham is not politically active. He doesn't move in political circles. He doesn't seem to have any reason to purchase weapons in mass quantity."
"Damn it," Lee cursed and picked up the papers Francine had deposited. "Another damn dead end."
"Where is he now?" Amanda asked. "Is he in Iraq?"
"My intelligence tells me he's currently at one of his many estates just outside of Venice."
"Venice, Italy?"
"Yes, Amanda, that Venice. I don't think it's Venice, New York."
Amanda dropped in her chair and thumbed madly through her own stack of printouts. Alarms wnt off in her head, and if she could ignore the smell of lunch long enough, she might be able to put it together.
"What's the matter, Amanda?" Lee asked, leaning down to look over her shoulder.
She held up a hand and shushed him, only catching out of the corner of her eye the amusing glance Francine threw his way. Amanda snatched up a highlighting pen from her desk and began marking different referenced transport ships on several pages. On the final page, she jabbed her finger triumphantly against the paper.
"Aha!" she proclaimed.
"What, Amanda? What have you got?" her husband asked again.
"Dog biscuits."
"Dog biscuits?" Francine said in her typical 'what on earth is she talking about now' annoyance.
"I remembered seeing something about Venice, and I think I know how Mancini is planning on getting the weapons out of the country."
Lee bounced his hand in the air, silently asking her to proceed. Amanda picked the papers up and balanced them on her arm as she explained.
"Okay, there is a container ship loaded with dog biscuits leaving DC tonight with SA Brazil Transport."
"Lee, this is pointless," Francine tried to say.
"Now, wait a minute!" she said, holding up a finger and almost dropping the printouts. She pointed to one of the areas she highlighted. "The transport is going from here to Miami and from Miami to Fortaleza, Brazil - its home port - with a stop in Antigua and Barbuda."
"Amanda, we're talking Iraq not Brazil," Francine began.
"Hang on, Francine. Let her finish," Lee said. Amanda could hear in his voice he was getting annoyed at Francine's interruptions.
"Well, just about the time the SA Brazil Transport, a cargo ship from Libreville, Gabon will be making it's final drop and heading back to Africa." Before Francine could interrupt again, Amanda pushed forward. "Another transport in Gabon is then scheduled to leave the Gulf of Guinea and head around Cape Verde to Tangier, Morocco. An Italian transport, owned by a Venician import/export company is leaving Morocco three days after the Gabon ship reaches Tangier and returning to Venice. So, in theory, Prince Ali Ham Shambi Rahib could have his shipment leaving DC tonight in approximately three months."
When she finally took a breath and looked from her various shipping manifests to Lee and Francine, Lee had a wide and proud smile on his face. Their eyes met and he winked at her.
"Okay, I'm pretty sure I followed all that," Francine said with a tilted nod.
Lee pressed his hand to her back and rubbed up and down her spine. "I followed it, and it was brilliant. I don't think even the best computer correlation program would have come up with those connections."
Francine moaned. "You two belong together, you know that? Only you, Lee, can appreciate such longwinded ramblings and call them brilliant. How do you manage to live with that day in and day out?"
Lee smiled down at her, and Amanda felt pride in his pride for her.
"It's easier than you think."
Francine rolled her eyes again. "Okay, we know how it's getting there. But where is it leaving from?"
Amanda flipped back to her first page. "Dock 47B. Tonight."
Lee tapped the paper with his knuckles. "Then that's where I'm going to be. Mancini likes to see the really big shipments off himself."
"I'll go tell Billy," Francine said, heading for the door. "We'll put together a tactics team and be ready. You two enjoy your lunch."
As soon as Francine was gone, Amanda was surprised when Lee wrapped his arms around her and devoured her lips in a deep, powerful kiss. When she was able to collect her wits and fully give in to the kiss, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pushed her fingers into his hair. A low hum vibrated between their lips. She gasped for air when Lee finally broke away.
"What was that for?" she asked.
"For being the most incredible agent I have ever known. Your mind might take an indirect route sometimes, but you're still more likely to get there faster than anyone I know. And most importantly because I love you."
Lunch was forgotten as Amanda smiled and pulled her husband back down to her for another kiss. The door opened again and Francine stuck her head in.
"Lee, Billy wants - oh, good lord," she moaned.
Lee chuckled, and his laugh echoed against her body as he held her close and made no move to let go. "What does Billy want?"
"He wants you in his office. Now. And Dr. Smythe is with him."
Lee looked down at her, and Amanda made an unpleasant face. "Do we make a run for it?" she asked, only half joking.
"I wouldn't," Francine interjected. "Dr. Smythe ordered Mrs. Marsten to not let you leave. You know how she can be with a semi-automatic."
Amanda slowly lowered her arms, her fingers skimming Lee's lapel, while a feeling of dread sank into her stomach. Suddenly she wasn't the least bit hungry. This could be it. The end. Smythe could demand their badges and have them escourted from the building - or worse.
Holding her gaze, Lee laced his fingers with hers and brought her hand up to kiss her knuckles. He smiled, but she saw in it that he thought the same things she did.
"Lead the way, Francine. We're ready."