Chapter 13

After a full day surrounded by the magical kingdom, Sam was beyond tired. He was exhausted, and the moment he fell into bed, he closed his eyes and was asleep within minutes. He slept in and had a late breakfast, and while Elsa and Maddie were getting ready to leave for the next park, Sam called the agency. He was surprised to hear that Michael returned.

"When did he get in?"

"Early this morning, Mr. Axe. You might want to try him at his mother's house. He was quite worried that he couldn't get in touch with her," the agent on the other side of the line informed him.

Sam would have bet that Mike tried to get in touch with him too, but his phone had been destroyed in the crash. He needed to buy a new one, and soon. "Okay, thanks a lot." He pressed the button to end the call and dialed Maddie's home number. It rang several times and the machine was starting to pick up when he heard Michael's voice.

"Hello? Ma, is it you?"

He'd never heard Mike's voice sound so fearful regarding his mother. "Hey Mikey, it's me, Sam."

A breath hissed over the line. "Sam. Where's my Ma?"

"Don't worry, she's with me and Elsa. We're at Disney. I needed to get her out of town fast, and Elsa came along." He hesitated, listening to his friend's breathing settle down. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes. Fi and I got back this morning with the list. Raines should have it by now." Michael answered, all business, but then his tone changed to something lighter. "We're going away for a little while."

"You and Fi?" That was a big surprise, a welcome one at that. "I hope this is a vacation. It better be or I'll tear back to Miami and give those guys at the Agency a piece of my mind."

Michael laughed. "There's no need for that, Sam. I have two weeks, and Fi and I are going to Jamaica for most, if not all, of it. We need to get away from everything."

"Damn straight," Sam agreed. "You guys have a great time and we'll see you when you get back."

"Thanks. Tell my mom, will you?"

"No problem. I'll take care of it. Oh, are you driving the Charger to the airport? I hope not, because I don't wanna have to be hunting for it again."

"Fi and I already discussed that. We're taking her car this time, and the Charger is staying in Ma's garage until I get back."

"Good idea." Sam smiled at the lightness in Michael's tone. He was finally getting a chance to relax, something that was long overdue. "Well, you two enjoy yourselves and come back well rested. If anything pressing happens while you're gone, well, don't worry about it. Leave your phone at home so you won't even know."

Laughing, Michael said, "Thanks, Sam. We'll see you in a couple weeks."

"Who was that," Maddie asked as she entered Sam and Elsa's bedroom and found him hanging up the phone.

"That was Mike," Sam announced as he approached her with a reassuring smile. "He's fine, Fi's fine, and they're at your house right now getting ready to go to Jamaica for a week or so."

"Michael's home? We need to leave now!" She tried to wrestle out of Sam's grasp on her shoulders. "Who knows when he'll really be back home?"

"Maddie, listen to me." Sam's gaze drilled into her shifting, agitated eyes, and he spoke in a soft, even tone. "Calm down. They're going on vacation. You know Mikey deserves this, and Fi will be with him, so he's in good hands. He'll come back to Miami more relaxed and fresh. Just let him go, and he'll see you in two weeks."

She knew she could trust Sam to be truthful, unless this was another clandestine mission. If that was the case, any loyalty he felt towards her vanished, replaced by his allegiance to Michael and national security. "You're sure this is just a vacation?"

He squeezed her shoulders with a gentle grip. "Yes. So just relax. After all, that's what we're here for. Right?" His smile widened. "Let's go to the Animal Kingdom today. How about it?"

Maddie stared at him for a few seconds before answering. "Okay. But after this I want to go home. If it's safe."

"It's never been safer," Sam responded with confidence.

The three left the suite and enjoyed the day with lighter hearts knowing that Michael and Fiona were together and hopefully having the time of their lives. Before leaving the hotel, they checked out and arranged for a rental car to get them back to Miami, and in the late afternoon they headed for home. With a stop for dinner, Sam didn't turn onto Maddie's street until after dark.

He drove past the front of the house and everything seemed to be in order. But when he turned the corner, a strange car was cloaked by the shade from a large oak. The vehicle was a beater, and it didn't look like anything Maddie's neighbors would drive.

Sam asked, "You know that car, Maddie?"

"No," Maddie answered, alarm in her voice.

"I was afraid of that." Sam's expression turned grim in the glow from the dash as he parked near the corner. "I see light in the garage. You two stay here." He shut the car off but left the keys in the ignition, grabbed his sidearm, and closed the driver's side door with very little sound after getting out. He slipped around to the side door and peered inside.

Two figures moved around the Charger with flashlights shining on the undercarriage and the interior. The garage side door was open a crack, allowing Sam to sneak inside. He'd been through the door often enough to know exactly where it squealed, so he pushed just far enough, turned sideways with his gun leading the way, and entered.

"I'd be careful about that if I were you," he said to the person checking the cracks in the back seat. "Last guy who did that got poisoned and lost his life."

The intruders sucked in their breaths in surprise, and the one inside the Charger dropped his flashlight. It rolled to the floor. Sam turned on the overhead light and kept his gun aimed at the guy inside the vehicle.

To the guy hiding behind the bumper, Sam said, "You better come on out. It's been a long day, I'm tired, and my trigger finger is itchy. Might accidentally shoot your friend for trespassing, and then who knows what'll happen to you before the cops get here."

"We don't want any trouble," the man behind the bumper said as he rose, his eyes beady as he stared at Sam's handgun. He put his hands behind his head and came out to stand near the back fender. "Some guy hired us to look for something. He said it would be on this car, and he gave us each five hundred bucks."

"Yeah." His friend joined him. "We're kinda down on our luck right now, so we needed cash bad, man. Otherwise we wouldn't be caught dead doing a job like this."

"Who did you do this job for," Sam asked. Neither man spoke, and Sam smirked. "You're gonna do this the hard way, huh? Okay, I can deal with that, no skin off my nose." He got out his new cell phone and dialed the CIA office and asked for the Deputy Director.

"Dan Siebels."

"Deputy Director, this is Sam Axe." Sam swore he could hear a groan on the other side of the phone.

"Axe, what do you want? Do you realize how late it is?"

"Yes, Sir, I do. It's just that I need some agents to come out to Madeline Westen's house. There are a couple of enemies of the state here who were pawing around Mike's car looking for something. They won't tell me what, but I'm sure you can imagine." Sam heard a distinct sound of leather creaking. Siebels was sitting up straighter in his chair.

"Did they say anything about who sent them?"

"No, but they're not particularly chatty. I figured the CIA could work their magic and have them singing like birds in no time." He smiled at the two prisoners, seeing the terror in their eyes at the pictures that ran rampant through their minds.

"Hold them. I'll have a car there in about twenty minutes. Or less."

"Thanks. I'm sure we'll have a great time until your guys get here." He slipped the phone into his pocket. All the while he talked with Siebels, he kept his eye on his prisoners and the barrel locked on them. "Alrighty, guys. The CIA has some agents on the way, so if you change your mind and want to talk, great. Otherwise…" He let out a breath. "I don't envy you one bit if you try to resist them. They have some really innovative ways of making people talk."

"Look, man, we don't know what's going on. We were just hired to find this thing."

"What thing," Sam asked.

"A little plastic thing about this big," the shorter guy to Sam's right gestured with his thumb and forefinger. "It's some kind of chip. That's all we know. Really!"

Sam tried to get more out of them before the agents arrived, but it became apparent that they really were in the dark as to what they were seeking. The men were assigned to search the car, find it, and get paid. End of story.

"I've got a little word of advice for you guys," Sam said as he heard car doors slamming. "Next time someone asks you to do a job and waves hundred dollar bills in your face, ask questions. Lots of them, and find out what you're getting yourself into. For five hundred bucks, you almost betrayed your country. Is it worth it?"

The taller one opened his mouth to speak, and Sam sensed anger bubbling up from deep inside him. If the guy said 'Yes', he had a feeling he wouldn't be responsible for what happened next. He could chalk it up to being tired, but that wasn't the truth. For most of his life he'd been fighting for this country, good or bad, and to come across people who gave no thought to spitting on it by helping a terrorist was something he couldn't stand. Even the government had gone soft on traitors, putting them away in prison instead of executing them like they did in the old days.

He heard footsteps and turned his head enough to see the agents who arrived to pick up his prisoners. "Pearce. They've got you doing cleanup detail?"

She shrugged. "I was the only one sober enough to come," she answered in a way that if Sam didn't know her better, he would have thought she was serious. "I got the graveyard shift with Agent Jakes. He's new to Miami."

"But I've been in the agency a long time," Jakes added.

Sam narrowed his eyes. The guy didn't look like he was a day over thirty, thirty-five at the most. He shrugged. "Well, they're all yours, Dani. Have a ball."

"Thanks for hanging onto them for us, Sam," she said with an appreciative smile. "I saw Michael and Fiona off on their vacation, by the way. I don't think Michael could get out of the agency building fast enough."

"Did they even pack," Sam asked.

Pearce and Jakes cuffed the prisoners as she answered. "I don't think so." A twinkle in her eyes told him she suspected they wouldn't need much where they were going, and she proved it by adding, "I think I heard him say something about a private island."

Sam nodded. "Great. He needs to get away from the rat race for awhile. Longer than two weeks, that's for sure."

"Don't worry. His days as an agent are numbered if plans work out," she said, being careful not to reveal too much in front of the prisoners who Jakes escorted out of the garage with Pearce and Sam trailing behind.

Sam leaned closer. "So Raines got the list."

"Yes. The fury is already coming down on the people who are on it."

"Good. Those guys were looking for it, but they were a little late to the party. And they're out of five hundred bucks apiece."

Pearce glanced up at him. "That's all they got for a treasonous act?"

"Apparently selling out your country is cheap these days."

Pearce let out a long even breath and shook her head. "Sounds like we need people like Michael all the more." When she said it, her eyes were locked on Sam.

He backed off a step and waved his hands. "Uh uh, lady. No way. I've served my time right alongside Mike. My lady would kill me if I tried to get into the Agency." He stood his ground, fists on hips. "Besides, after seeing everything that Mike's gone through, do you really think I'd be that stupid?"

"It wasn't the CIA doing those things, and you know it." She spat her words at him.

"Okay, calm down. I know you're passionate about your work, and I admire that. But I've done enough. It's time to enjoy my retirement like I hoped I would seven years ago. Only this time, things are a little better." His eyes wandered to the car where Maddie and Elsa stood. The love of his life looked worried, as if she feared that he would run off and take Michael's place while he was on vacation. "Now, unless there's something you need from me, I'm out of here. I have to get home. My lady and I have a date with a mattress."

Pearce rolled her eyes. "I really don't need to hear about your love life, Sam."

He barked out a laugh. "No, the only plans I have tonight are to sleep. Good night, Pearce."

"Good night. And thanks."

"You're welcome." He nodded at her and turned toward the car.

"After tonight's events, I think Maddie should stay at the hotel with us," Elsa declared and addressed Madeline. "Tomorrow we can come here and make sure everything is safe before you settle in."

"Thank you. That's really sweet of you."

"I agree. Come on, let's go." Sam opened the doors for Maddie and Elsa. "I don't know about you sweetheart, but a vacation sounds really good after this."

"We could go back to Disney World," Maddie suggested with a grin.

Sam got into the driver's seat and turned to face her in the back. "Mike won't be around for a couple weeks. Maybe you should call Virgil and see if he'd like to come for a visit?"

Maddie's face lit up so bright, she could have illuminated the back of the car without aid from the street light. "That's a great idea!"

Turning back to the front, Sam started the car and put it in gear. He took Elsa's hand and as he drove he squeezed it. "And you and I, we'll go someplace and get away from all of this."

"That sounds good. Just promise me you'll leave your phone at home."

"You've got a deal, baby." He kissed her hand and drove into the night to take them home.