"Uh oh!" Augie Swann jumped up nervously from behind his desk when he saw Lee enter the make shift office. "Uh . . . I mean, hey chief! To what do I owe the pleasure? Oh, and lovely Mrs. King!" He said looking past Lee. "Whoa, Mrs. King what happened to your face?" Augie's face contorted as he looked at Amanda closely. Lee kept himself between the two, shielding Amanda from the shmuck in front of him.

"Seriously, Augie?" Why did Lee always feel like hitting something when he was around Augie Swann? And usually it was Augie he wanted to hit.

"Are you okay, Mrs. K.? I'm sorry. I just wasn't expecting . . . I mean, you're all –"

"Okay, Swann! Why don't you just shut up, huh?" Lee shook his head in disgust. Did the man have any manners? Lee squeezed Amanda's hand and looked at her apologetically. It had taken a lot of coaxing to get her to agree to go out in public with her shiner and split lip, now she'd never believe him again. Besides, it really did look a hell of a lot better than it did when he first saw her lying on his couch. The way it was healing, it would hardly be noticeable in a day or two.

"It's okay, Lee." Amanda patted his arm. "I'm fine, Mr. Swann. Thank you for your concern," she called to him.

"Listen, Augie tell us what you know about the deal you just brokered with Sean McGuinnis. We know you were involved."

"Sean who? Lee, I don't know—"

"Cut the crap, Augie! This is serious shit! Not like those low level gigs you've had in the past. This guy is in the big leagues, my friend." Lee grabbed Augie by his shirt lapels and shoved him in Amanda's direction. "Do you see my partner over there? That's McGuinnis' work. He didn't even blink an eye at beating a woman. What do you think he'll do to you when he needs to clean up his loose ends, huh?"

"He did that to you, Mrs. K.?" he asked disbelievingly.

Amanda nodded. "He would have killed me if I hadn't gotten away, Augie."

"Come on, Augie!" Lee shook him for emphasis.

"Okay, okay! What do you want to know?"

"Everything! Who'd you hook him up with? What are we up against?"

"I introduced him to Vinnie."

"Not 'Black-Market Vinnie!' Oh, Augie!" Lee rubbed his temples.

"I'm sorry, Lee. I didn't know what kind of guy I was dealing with."

"You didn't—Augie, he was looking to buy enough C-4 to blow up a city block. What did you think he was planning to do? Hell, his Irish accent should have been a dead give away!"

"He's Irish? I thought he was from England!"

"Oh, Augie!" Lee shook his head in disgust and watched Amanda squeeze her eyes shut and shake her head.

"Okay, Augie. Take a look at this list. Amanda?" He indicated for her to show Augie the copy of the list that she had found in McGuinnis' hotel room.

Amanda pulled the folded up piece of paper from her back pocket and opened it up before handing it to the would-be middleman. "Augie, do you know if Vinnie was able to fill this list?" Amanda questioned.

The man brought the list over to the window and reviewed it thoughtfully. "Uh yeah, unfortunately, Mrs. K. and then some."

She shot a worried glance at Lee and sighed. "Don't worry, partner. We've still got time before the conference," he reassured her as he grabbed her hand and made for the exit.

They were stopped in their tracks when Augie stepped between them and the doorframe of his office. "Hold up, Lee. I mean, if this guy is as bad as you say, shouldn't you take me into protective custody or something?"

"No way, Augie!" Lee cringed at the idea.

"Come on, man! Look what he did to Mrs. King! He wouldn't think twice about killing me! You said so yourself."

"Just take a trip out of town for a week or so, Augie."

"L-e-e! We have to help him!" Amanda chastised.

"Yeah, listen to Mrs. King, Lee!"

"Fine! Fine! I'll make a call to the office and have an agent pick you up, that is unless you want me to stuff you into my trunk now?" he growled.

"No, no. I can wait. Thanks, buddy!" He patted Lee's shoulder.

Lee scowled at the other man's ministrations until he stopped. "Now move before I save McGuiness the trouble and kill you myself." He held out his hand to his partner. "Come on, Amanda."

SMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMKSMK

After getting a location on Vinnie, Lee and Amanda paid him a visit and confirmed that McGuinnis had secured all the items on his wish list. Lee had then placed a call to Billy from his car to give him an update while Amanda sat next to him diligently reading through Agent Nobles' journal. After finishing his call to their supervisor, he turned off the car and stepped out of the car and walked around to open Amanda's door. At her look of confusion, he pointed toward the diner to indicate it was time for lunch. She took his proffered hand and stepped out, leaving the journal under the seat.

Now as they sat in the booth in the corner of the restaurant, Lee filled her in on his call. "Billy confirmed that Beaman and his crew are flashing McGuinnis' photo all over town and Francine's got a group of agents blanketing the embassy." Lee stated as he dipped his sandwich into the au jus. "Oh, and I told him to get those agents sitting on your house to a less conspicuous spot."

"Good. I mean if I spotted them as soon as we came down the street, he'd spot them in a second. Do you think he'll really show up there?"

"Well, you are unfinished business for him and based on what you said, he's obviously taken your "betrayal" very personally. Hey, did you find anything in that analyst's journal?"

"Nothing yet. So far she's only mentioned that they met. You know, he really does stick to the same MO; single woman, knowledgeable, but not too in the know that it would set off alarm bells, and gets close quickly before they have time to realize what he's really up to."

"He sticks with what works."

"Making him very predictable," she added.

"Exactly."

Amanda stabbed a tomato from her salad and popped it into her mouth. "So, we know he won't go back to either of the hotel rooms he was staying at, but if he does we'll catch him." Amanda inwardly cringed at the thought of the time she'd spent in both of those rooms.

"Right. So where does that leave us?"

"Well, we know he's already taken custody of the materials from Vinnie. He's got less than a day before the conference. So . . . he's got to be building the bomb, right?" She looked at him expectantly.

"More than likely, yes." He nodded.

"He's going to need to be somewhere secluded. I mean he wouldn't want to be interrupted or discovered. Right?" she asked with raised brows.

"Right . . ." He watched her through narrow eyes wondering exactly where she was going.

"And he certainly wouldn't want to travel too far once he's made the bomb to get to the embassy, right?"

"So, we're looking for a secluded building near the embassy that will afford him the space and the privacy he needs to build the bomb." He smiled at the logical woman sitting across from him. He was right three years ago when he said she would make a good agent one day. Maybe he wasn't completely right back then. She was turning out to be a great agent.

"What are you smiling about, Scarecrow?" She eyed him suspiciously.

"I was just thinking how amazing you are and how far you've come from the woman I begged to help me that day at the train station."

"Little did I know I would be helping you for the next three years!" She scoffed at him.

His fingers intimately played with the fingers of her left hand. "We've only just begun, Amanda and I've got no plans to let you go." He looked longingly into her eyes, hoping to convey the sincerity of his words.

She blushed and then cleared her throat in obvious embarrassment.

"So, how was your call with your family? Are the boys having fun at your Aunt's?"

"Oh, yeah. They love spending time on her farm. My mother even seems to be having fun. Usually, she and my aunt argue the entire time they're together, but the boys said it's been pretty peaceful."

"Well, good. One less thing for you to worry about."

"Yeah."

He squeezed her hand before taking a swig of his iced tea. "What do you say we get back to the Agency and see if we can pinpoint a list of possible locations?"

She nodded. "Let's go!"