Hello! If you haven't already done so, may I humbly request that you suspend your disbelief with this fic from here on out; its grasp on reality is becoming increasingly tenuous haha. That said, I hope this chapter is OK!


Chapter Thirteen

"The thing I don't get is how no one saw it coming." Elizabeth idly traced one finger over a little stain on the table as she sat with Henry, waiting for Russell Jackson to call them back.

"Hmm?" Henry looked up from his phone, for which he had been trying and failing to find a signal for the past few minutes.

Elizabeth pushed her chair back from the desk and turned to face Henry head on, close enough to her husband that her knees were pressed up against his, letting her feel the warmth and solidity of him next to her. It was comforting. "Kodalov obviously orchestrated the plot somehow. I don't doubt that he has the support for it, but it was so… well hidden."

A thoughtful look crossed Henry's face as he considered it. "The coup was big and violent," he said. "How did no one see it coming?"

She nodded, pleased they were on the same page. "Exactly. I know our ties with Petria haven't always been that close, but no one knew this was coming. There was no warning at all."

"You know, it's only relatively recently that Petria became a democracy. They would have been used to hiding things back under Soviet rule," Henry said. "And even before that, before communism, it may have had a rich culture but it was still a secretive place."

He had a point. Petria was a beautiful country with a varied and interesting history, but it was true that it had always been a rather closed place. It was only in the last thirty years or so that it had been experimenting with a more open means of government – and society more generally. Still, from what she knew of the place, something didn't sit right with Elizabeth. "Yeah, but…"

Henry leaned forward, resting his hands on Elizabeth's thighs and looking closely at her face, eyes tracing over her features. "What, babe?"

"The American company with the clean energy plant we're here to support is only here at all because eighteen months ago Petria suffered a disastrous fire at a state-owned coal-powered plant. It caused billions in damage, killed hundreds of people and the area is still feeling the environmental effects."

Henry frowned. "So?"

"So they tried to cover it up. And failed. Spectacularly. So our company spied an opportunity to make some money in a troubled region…"

"And here we are?"

"And here we are. I'd bet you anything you like that a secret coup planned in Petria wouldn't stay a secret long enough for it to be executed."

They stared at each other for a moment. Elizabeth thought how strangely exhilarating it was, how enjoyable, to be working with Henry – working together on a problem that they were actually allowed to talk about, that they needed to talk about, a problem that they both had skills to help solve. A problem where they could use each other for support and reassurance. It made the stress and sheer awfulness of the situation that little bit easier to bear, and it gave her hope that they had a positive way forward when they got back home. They could be together and work together; they didn't have to pick.

Henry swallowed. "So… maybe the coup was planned somewhere else."

Elizabeth could still hear the helicopter outside. It kept making long, sweeping passes around the embassy, flying so far away that it was almost inaudible for a time before looping back towards them and starting the circle again, occasionally making a pass directly overhead and hovering there for a minute or two in a manner she suspected was designed to intimidate. And now they knew that it was most likely a Russian helicopter.

The wheels were turning in her head.

"Kodalov was always against the US-owned power plant," she said, speaking up to be heard over the increasing rhythmic noise of the chopper blades. "He's something of a nationalist. And he has always been really popular in Petria. He has plenty of support among the younger demographic."

"The demographic most likely to protest," Henry said.

Yes. He got it. She loved that they were on the same page without her having to explain every little detail. It made it so much easier. Damn, she loved her husband. "Right. And the company building the power plant hasn't exactly covered itself in glory recently. Daisy has spent the past month telling me how the whole thing is an unnecessary PR disaster. So maybe Kodalov used his soft power to oppose the plant and use its own mistakes to stoke the protests among his supporters."

"That would stoke the embers," Henry said, his hands still on her legs, squeezing lightly.

Elizabeth leaned into him. "Exactly. And then maybe he worked with whoever is our embassy leak to use my visit to bolster the protests and garner support for himself without being too directly involved, while increasing discontent with President Zembrovko and the influence of the United States."

"And you," Henry put in.

Right. Some of the protests had been uncomfortably personal, but she had been hoping to gloss over that. She should have known that Henry wouldn't be able to, even as she was hoping he might not even have noticed. Fool. Of course he had noticed. "… yeah," she admitted, before moving swiftly on. "So Kodalov does all that while making himself look like the reasonable people's saviour. And then bam."

"The country is hit by a coup."

"One that plenty of people won't like, especially given the nature of it, but one that most people will probably tolerate in the end, because they like Kodalov and they don't know the truth of how it came about, or that he killed Zembrovko, who most of them didn't like much anyway." Elizabeth sat back in her chair, crossing her arms over her stomach, trying to fit the rest of the puzzle pieces together.

If only she could put together a way out of the embassy as well as she could the thought process for taking a country by force. She wondered what that said about her.

"Well, he certainly seems to have the ambition and lack of morals required for the endeavour," Henry said.

"But not the brains," Elizabeth replied. In her dealings with Gleb Kodalov, she had always found him able to talk a good game, but not bring the substance when it mattered, a fact he typically tried to cover up with macho bluster and bravado of the kind that drove her crazy. She looked down and away. "This was planned by the Russians."

She hated to say it, given the amount of trouble Russia had caused her and Henry over the past year, but there was no getting away from it. She couldn't think of any other option that made sense.

"Looks that way," Henry agreed.

"Probably not the new president, though," Elizabeth clarified. While she didn't know the man well, he seemed a more reasonable prospect to work with than his predecessors at the Kremlin and she couldn't see him being involved when he seemed fairly keen to at least try to normalise ties between their countries. "My guess would be Kodalov had help from the generals loyal to Maria Ostrov and her husband. Some of them were ousted recently and they're pretty bitter about it. They'll have been looking for things to fill their time."

She was fully aware that there were plenty of Russian generals who hated her guts and, free from official ties and obligations, would love to use her as a sitting target while furthering their aims of expansion into Eastern Europe. In Gleb Kodalov they found their puppet, and in her visit to Petria they had found their perfect opportunity to mess with the United States. She hesitated to call it an action of revenge, but she suspected on at least some level, that's what it was.

She felt guilt starting to churn low in her gut at Henry getting caught up – again – in something that largely circled around her, but it was mostly drowned out by the indignation and anger at the fact someone thought that they could do such a thing.

People had died in the palace. They were dying on the streets. Daisy and Jay and some of her DS agents were still missing. How dare Kodalov and his puppet masters do this? How could they –

"Babe?" Henry's palm cupped her cheek and Elizabeth realised that she was breathing fast and shallow, and her heart was starting to race, a sure sign of the start of a panic attack. "Breathe," Henry said.

His gaze found hers and held it, and she brought her hands up to hold onto his arms as he cupped her face in his hands and held her steady. She took his advice and took a few seconds just to breathe. She gave Henry a smile and then she leaned closer to give him a brief kiss. "Thank you."

He looked at her worriedly for a moment before he nodded as though satisfied she was OK. He swallowed. "So Kodalov is the main puppet. But who is the puppet in our embassy?"

Elizabeth shrugged. "I don't know. I hope when he calls back that Russell will –"

She never got to finish her sentence because she was interrupted by the sound of an explosion of such force that the foundations of the building shook and dust rained down from the ceiling. At the sound of the blast, Henry lurched forward and hauled Elizabeth into his arms, tugging her out of her chair and down to the floor in the corner between the desk and the wall. "Get down!"

His body pressed hers into the corner and she could hear him breathing harshly in her ear, his breath hot against her skin and his pulse thumping hard as she pressed one hand against his chest. She was sure her own heart was beating fast and hard enough to match his. She could taste the dust and adrenaline in her mouth, her tongue feeling dry and chalky and her gut feeling at once empty and burning with acid. Oh God, not again.

It took a few seconds for her to realise that the explosion hadn't been in the embassy itself, that while it had obviously been big, the building itself hadn't been hit. Elizabeth disentangled herself slowly from Henry so that she could take stock. The bump on her forehead pulsed, but other than that and feeling a little jarred, she felt fine. "You OK?" she asked Henry, running her hands worriedly over his torso even though she was pretty sure he was fine. She just had to be sure.

"Fine." His lips brushed over her hairline as he pushed back and held out one hand to help her stand.

A frantic shout came from somewhere outside the room. "We need the medic – two embassy guards are injured!"

Her heart sunk. From the direction of the sound of the blast and where the shout had come from, Elizabeth guessed that the explosion had happened directly outside the embassy, most likely just outside the gate. The guards tasked with staffing the gate must have been caught up in it.

"I'll check what's going on." Henry gave her hand a squeeze and then made to let go.

She held onto him, snagging him back, her heart beating wildly. "Henry." The first strands of panic started to rise. He couldn't go. She needed him to stay with her. She didn't know how to be while he was off playing action man, his trip to Pakistan had taught her that much. He couldn't –

He stroked her hair back from her face, fingers lingering at her temple for a moment. "I'll just be a minute. We need to know who's been hurt."

Yeah. Yeah, they did, didn't they? They needed to know the situation, needed to know how bad it was. Elizabeth forced the building panic back down, swallowed it deep down into her stomach and willed it to stay there. "I know."

"Stay here in case Russell calls back, OK? I'll be back in a minute."

"One minute." It may have been selfish, but it was all she could spare.

He nodded. He looked like he understood. "One minute." He kissed her quickly before he dashed to the door, unlocking it and then disappearing through, leaving it ajar behind him.

Elizabeth took in a slow, deep breath and held it. She looked down at the desk and willed the phone to ring. She willed Henry to come back. She willed herself to be useful. She breathed out.

A noise inside the doorway made her look up.

"Andreou," she said as the Regional Security Officer stepped into the room.

"Madam Secretary." He looked over at where she stood next to the desk – the phone.

"What's going on? Who's hurt? Do you need me to-"

Andreou Flack closed the door behind him with a click, cutting her off. He took a step forward.

Elizabeth tensed. Something about the look on the man's face… something didn't feel right. She felt uneasy. She tried to push it aside. "Is it the guards on the gate?"

Another step forward. "Madam Secretary, what are you doing in here?"

The question was innocent enough. There was just something about his demeanour. There had just been an explosion. A bomb, most likely. It had injured embassy staff and shaken the building and left dust in her hair and the taste of it in her mouth and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't quell the slight tremor in her hands or the sense of being on edge. And yet the RSO was calm. Too calm. Elizabeth regarded him cautiously. "It's confidential, so I'm afraid I need you to step out."

Andreou Flack held his ground, seeming to bed in to his position as he stood a few steps in front of her. "You shouldn't be alone," he said. "I'm staying for your security."

That implied her DS agents weren't currently close by enough to usurp his authority, no doubt doing their part to deal with the blast victims and secure the embassy. And that was when she was sure. She steeled herself even as she felt the first hot darts of fear licking at her skin. "Whose security, Andreou?" She glanced at the silent phone on the desk. She willed herself to be calm. "I don't think it's my security you're interested in."

He regarded her with mild interest.

"It was you. You leaked the information."

There was the slightest tic at his jaw that gave away his subtle panic at her assertion.

"Why'd you do it, Andreou?" Her head was starting to spin.

He didn't answer, but his pupils had blown and at his side his hand was engaged in a nervous twitch. Then he stilled completely. Decision made.

Elizabeth closed her eyes for a moment to steady herself. When she opened them again, she found that Andreou Flack had pulled a gun and trained it on her chest. Her stomach lurched.

He walked towards her.