Chapter 44

Irina woke and didn't want to move; she was far too comfortable nestled against Jack, chest to chest. But the alarm was going off.

She was about to shake him awake when he opened his eyes and rolled away to turn off the alarm. Then he turned back and kissed her. "Laura," he said afterwards, "I'm not going to give up on you. No matter what other revelations you might have. We're going to figure out some way to keep our family together."

Irina started to wonder if maybe, with Jack apparently completely on her side, they might be able to manage it. "All right," she said. "But talk to Dawson about finding a way for me to get in touch if I should get extracted anyway." It would be impractical for them to try to disappear while she still had a cast on, since that would call attention to them wherever they disappeared to; she didn't think she would be extracted before she was fully healed, but it was always possible.

"All right," he said. "Hopefully it will keep anyone at the CIA from suspecting that we might be planning our own move."

She frowned. She had envied him his patriotism over the last few years, as her own had withered up and died. "Jack, I could never ask you to betray your country. Please, think about this and make sure it's what you really want to do."

"Some things are more important than any country," Jack answered immediately. He watched her for a moment, then sighed. "All right, I'll think about it, but I'm pretty sure my conclusion will be the same."

"Thank you." She kissed him gently. "And we're only going to go through with this if we've got a good plan. Sydney's safety is the most important thing."

"Of course." He squeezed her hand, then got up. "I'll go get your crutches." She smiled after him. It would be a miracle if it all worked out, but it was beginning to look like it just might be possible.

***

That afternoon, Alexander Khasinau accepted a copy of Laura Bristow's hospital records from Leon Volsky, then made him wait as he looked through them. He frowned when he got to the doctor's notes about Irina's broken bones. He knew about her history with her father, of course, but had never expected it to become an issue. She'd been tested during her KGB training to make sure that she was capable of dealing with injury and aggressive men, but they'd never anticipated questions from a medical professional on the subject. He read further and discovered the doctor's recommendations for counseling; that explained Irina's activities yesterday, then. He shut the folder and was about to hand it to Volsky to be destroyed when he noticed the time of admission: 11:58 p.m. He addressed Volsky. "What time did your meeting with her finish on Thursday?"

Volsky frowned. "I left around 10."

Khasinau considered for a moment. If Volsky had left first, of course Derevko would have waited a short while before leaving. But even with Irina waiting to leave the hotel, her time driving, and transit time to the hospital, there was as much as an hour of time that was unaccounted for. His mind immediately started going through scenarios, from the worst—Irina had been discovered by the CIA and somehow brainwashed or otherwise induced to hide her discovery from the KGB—to the most innocuous—perhaps the accident simply hadn't been discovered for an hour. Irina had suffered a broken leg, after all, and wouldn't have been able to go for help herself. In any case, it was worth investigating further. "I want the police reports on the accident. Also, I'll need information on where the accident occurred—traffic patterns on that road, distance from both the hotel and the Bristow home, whether that was a logical route."

Volsky nodded. "Of course, sir. I can get it for you by tomorrow morning."