Chapter 2- Suspicions
She was running up the stairs at Langley, a little behind that morning because it was MLK Day. Well, and the fact that Henry was home that morning. The building was fairly empty but they had some intel come in over the weekend that she needed to work on and meet with Conrad.
She stepped into the office almost out of breath.
"About time you got here," Isabelle said looking up at the clock.
"I'm not that late. Only 10 minutes. You try getting out the door with a on and a half year old clinging to your leg." She fired back at her.
"Ha! I'm sure she wasn't the only one. C'mon we're best friends and I know Henry has the day off. Did he make you his famous pancakes for breakfast?" Isabelle laughed as she said it.
"Alright, c'mon enough about my idealic life. What do you got for me?"
"Not sure. There is chatter in Iraq about something big coming but we can't quite place it. Was kind of hoping you and Conrad could sort it out," she explained.
'Do you want to make the trip or should I?" Elizabeth sighed.
"Maybe we should both go. We both have different contacts there. Question is do we arrive together?" Isabelle asked.
Looking at the papers in front of her, Elizabeth said, "I'm not sure. Let's go."
"Bess, what do you got?" Conrad asked as she entered his office with Isabelle in tow.
"Not sure. Isabelle picked up some chatter this weekend but I think we need to go over to Baghdad to sniff it out," she explained.
"We?! I am not sending you both together. Who has the stronger contact in this?" he said.
"Sir, I think we both have separate contacts and we both need to go. The intel is coming from Iraq but I just have this feeling it is not rooted there," she explained.
"Okay. Bess you go to Baghdad. Isabelle head to Turkey and see what you hear on the ground."
A week later, she hugged the girls goodbye and kissed Henry. She looked back at the farmhouse from the car as it headed to Andrews for her military transport to Baghdad.
She tried to sleep on the flight over but military planes were not that comfortable. They always brought on nausea or what she thought was nausea from the plane.
The plane landed and as she walked off the plane she thought she was going to be sick. She turned to the Marine who greeted her an explained the flight had been rough and she needed a few moments to herself. She barely made it to the bathroom before she was sick.
When she stepped back outside, the sun was harsh on her clear, blue eyes as she slid on her sunglasses. She thought, "Thank God I am in and out of here in two days."
The next day, her convoy was small as they made their way off the base and into the small neighborhood on the outskirts of Baghdad. She always liked to travel with a small convoy and it drove Henry's nerves crazy. But, she had always argued to him that she had a job to do and the more people, the more noticeable the Americans were.
She and two undercover Marines got out of the car. Elizabeth had her blue head covering over her golden hair and gray pants and a white shirt on. The heat and sand were unbearable. It was the two things that she disliked about coming to the Middle East. Everything else she loved, the people, the beauty, the FOOD. Although, the food was not so appealing this trip as she began to realize why.
Her meeting with Aldara Hassaini was brief. She had known Aldara for many years. Aldara's husband had many connections in the terrorism world. He truly believed Aldara loved him, even if she was just playing a role.
Elizabeth fought back the nausea as she spoke quietly in an empty alley with her asset. She gave her what information she needed her to seek out from her husband. Aldara gave her what information she already had, which definitely gave them leads for Isabelle to work on in a week in Ankara. Elizabeth was grateful for that because she could get out of there a day early. Pregnancy nausea in this heat was the worst. Also, she could not wait to get home to Henry.
They left Aldara and Elizabeth made one more stop in the marketplace. It was the rug merchant. For an outsider, it looked like your typical exchange of goods. Elizabeth handed the shopkeeper money he took it to his register and unfolded it putting it in the register. He pulled out her "change" and handed her that back as well as a small runner for a hallway.
When they got back to the base, she met with her Marine unit. Inside the bunker they unfurled the runner and there was a map. It detailed the movement of two different terrorist groups from inside Iraq. One remained just to the North along the Tigris river, but the other group was making it's way further west. He indicated that movement began roughly three weeks ago. "Shit," she said to her unit, 'We're already behind. You guys need to keep better watch. This group is now three weeks out of Baghdad! How did we miss this?"
They gave her blank stares.
Back in her room later, she unfurled her change. Inside was the number for a new asset in Turkey. She would give that to Isabelle when they met up in Germany.
Later that night, the military transport took off headed for Germany. She could not believe that she was able to get everything done in 24 hours. She was on her way home.
The nausea during her flight took her mind off her work and back to her conversations with Henry the last few months. After recovering from the miscarriage, they had decided that maybe "going for three" wasn't so bad after all. They weren't going to actively try but they wouldn't try to prevent it either. They gave themselves five months to try again and scheduled Henry's vasectomy. If it didn't happen, then it wasn't meant to be and they would be happy to have a family that fit in a booth. If it did, well they would be ecstatic. She placed her hand over her stomach and fell asleep.
She arrived back home at the farmhouse confident in her work, exhausted from jetlag and throwing up from pregnancy. She ran from the car into the house dropping her bags and headed straight for the bathroom. Henry and the girls were not home yet.
She took a warm shower, threw on Henry's t-shirt and climbed into their bed. The coolness of the sheets helping her to fall asleep. It was only an hour later when she woke up to Henry's arms reaching around her. "Babe, if you don't wake up your sleep schedule will be all messed up."
She turned to look at him as she slowly opened her eyes.
Looking back at her he smiled and said, "Also, the girls don't know you are home. Want to go surprise them?"
She hugged him and said "Yes! But, I have a surprise for you first."
She reached over on her nightstand and grabbed the small, square box from Germany. She handed it to him. He opened it and inside was a stuffed teddy bear.
He looked at her shocked, "WHAT?! You're pregnant?"
She smiled with her eyes wide open, "Yes. Well, I am sick enough to know I am. I didn't have a chance to get a test yet."
He kissed her so gently. Then, they headed down to surprise the girls.
That evening they ordered Chinese. Henry stopped to get two tests while picking up dinner.
Later after putting the girls to bed, they sat on the bathroom floor together until the time dinged.
Henry checked first and two lines confirmed her suspicions. They were expecting.