Mercy Mild—Chapter Three
Waiting for Mummy to get off the phone with Grandpa V. H. and for Daddy to come back from wherever he went with the FBI man made Victoria impatient. It also gave her time to think. She had overheard one of the policemen talk about going door to door in the neighborhood as he walked past where she sat with Mummy. Clara had friends nearby, some of whom Victoria knew from school. Tori Bates lived in an apartment building on the street where they seemed to think Jack and the others had been taken away. Victoria was determined to find out if Tori might have seen where they went since her apartment's windows faced that street.
She plotted how to find that out.
Mummy touched Victoria's shoulder. "Your grandfather needs to speak to you."
Victoria took Daddy's phone from Mummy and wondered why Grandpa V. H. wanted to talk to her again. He asked her a lot of questions, most of which she'd already explained to the FBI man and to Daddy, but she patiently went through them again. Her grandpa was a spy, too. She'd heard Daddy tell him to stay with them (though she wasn't sure why Daddy thought Mummy would shoot Grandpa V. H.), so she figured that meant he was coming to help find Jack. To do her part, she answered the questions he asked.
When he asked about the woman, Victoria remembered Daddy saying he thought Cruella might be Galina Vian, and Victoria decided to look her up on IMDb since Daddy had said she'd been in movies. A lot of times there were pictures of the actors on the website. She could check and see for herself.
What she really remembered was a conversation Mummy had had with her friend Mona Ellerby. Victoria liked Mona, who was nice, funny, and had a whooping kind of laugh. She'd said Galina Vian's name before when she and Mummy were talking about how Mona once found Grandpa V. H. handcuffed to a bed in Montreal. Victoria wasn't sure why Montreal came up all the time, but she figured this Galina Vian had been one of her grandpa's girlfriends. The handcuffs had puzzled her. Maybe that Galina Vian was a spy, too, and she had arrested Grandpa V. H. While Grandpa got in trouble with Daddy a lot (Daddy gave her grandpa a lot of Talking To's), Victoria knew that was just because he did things that annoyed Daddy or taught Victoria things Daddy didn't think he should. She was pretty sure Daddy had never arrested her grandpa. Of course, that sort of thing got Daddy in trouble with Mummy sometimes—the teaching Victoria stuff, not the girlfriend stuff because Daddy didn't have girlfriends since he married Mummy. Grownups were weird, though, and sometimes that weirdness seemed to involve handcuffs. After all, Aunt Walker teased Daddy sometimes about handcuffs and that mean, redheaded Carina.
Victoria didn't understand why Daddy only seemed to know mean redheaded women.
Still, she decided Grandpa V. H. needed to know who Daddy thought the woman was. "Daddy thinks she sounds like Galina Vian."
There was a long, hard silence, and Victoria wondered if Grandpa V. H. was going to give Daddy a Talking To this time. "I promise, Victoria," he told her, and he sounded unusually grumpy, "that your woman isn't Galina Vian."
"Is she there with you?" Victoria asked. She didn't know how Grandpa V. H. could be so sure since Daddy had sounded pretty certain.
"She's in an English prison," her grandpa told her. Then he asked, "Do you know who Ilsa Trinchina is?"
Victoria's eyes narrowed. "Yes."
Grandpa V. H. sounded amused then. Victoria wasn't, mainly because that Ilsa wanted to be Daddy's girlfriend.
About three weeks before they came to Chicago, Mummy had gotten sick with a summer cold, so Daddy took Jack with them when he took Victoria for what was supposed to be their day. That meant they couldn't go to the gun range because they had to take Jack along, and Jack was too little to shoot guns. Daddy couldn't watch her shoot and watch Jack at the same time because when Jack was bored, he got into trouble. There was a lot of really bad trouble Jack could get into at the gun range, so Daddy took them to the zoo instead.
Victoria could have explained to Daddy the kinds of trouble Jack could get into at the zoo, but she decided she'd better not. Daddy would make her tell him how she knew, and then she'd get one of those Talking To's. He did, though, notice the looks some of the zoo people gave Victoria as they went around the exhibits. Daddy would occasionally give her a look that made her think he was trying to decide if she was one of the good guys or not. Still, Victoria decided Daddy didn't really need to know which of the cages had gates it was easy to pick the locks on, which had easy to guess access codes to open them, and which ones could be gotten around in other ways. He didn't need to know why the lions' people watched every move she made or why one of them followed them until they moved to the next habitat, and he especially didn't need to know that the polar exhibit was named for Mummy's grandmother because Mummy had had to give the zoo an awful lot of money not to permanently ban Victoria. Victoria had had to make a lot of promises about her behavior at the zoo if Mummy ever took her back.
She figured if she knew how to get into that kind of trouble, Jack wouldn't have any problems figuring it out for himself. Jack was pretty good at that kind of thing without any training at all. Mummy had once told Aunt Julie she thought it might be genetic.
Aunt Julie had laughed like a maniac and told Mummy she should ask Grandma Jane about Daddy when he was a little boy.
Victoria knew who Ilsa was because she'd shown up at the zoo that day. They had just gone to look at the reptiles—Victoria didn't like creepy-crawly, slithery things, but Jack did—and a woman followed them in and said, "Casey." Daddy told Victoria to watch her brother, so she positioned herself so she could watch Jack study the python behind the glass while she watched Daddy and that woman.
She'd been able to hear them, too, because that woman wasn't very quiet, so when that woman touched Daddy's arm like Mummy often did, she'd heard Daddy angrily hiss, "Ilsa!" as he jerked away from that woman's hand.
Daddy didn't like anyone but family to touch him, she knew, so Victoria decided she didn't like that woman, especially since Mummy had once described her to Aunt Julie as a cross between a pit viper and prostitute (Victoria had been practicing her sneaking skills, or she wouldn't have heard that). She had looked up the last word in the dictionary, so she knew this Ilsa was not nice and knew Mummy would be really mad if she learned that woman was chasing Daddy.
It made Victoria really mad when that Ilsa said, "Lose the brats, Casey."
Daddy sounded—and looked—like his teeth were clenched when he told her, "They're my children, and we're not having this conversation."
That had made Victoria narrow her eyes at that woman and wonder what was going on because it kind of sounded like Daddy had been talking to the pit viper prostitute before she showed up at the zoo.
"So your little Riah whelped a couple of cubs for you," the woman said in French. Victoria understood her because Mummy had been teaching her French for a couple of years. Daddy had pretended to be upset about it, though he later admitted to Victoria that it was really good to be able to speak more languages than English. Mummy said she should learn French because Victoria had dual citizenship—so did Jack and Mummy—and Canadians were bilingual. Daddy had thought it was funny to teach her some French swear words, and then Mummy had had several things to say to Daddy in some other language that didn't sound remotely like French.
"Leave my wife out of this." Daddy said to that Ilsa in English, and he sounded really mad.
"Gladly, Casey," that woman replied with a little shrug, but this time she put her hand on Daddy's chest. "I need you."
Victoria hadn't liked the sound of that because it was kind of like a purr, the kind that made Mummy punch that Carina one time when the mean redhead touched Daddy. Victoria hadn't been sure why that made Mummy hit someone—something she'd never seen her mum do before or since—but that Carina was mean, so Victoria supposed it was okay for Mummy to punch her. Uncle Chuck had said once Mummy kicked Carina's ass, so she figured Mummy just really didn't like Carina. Neither did Victoria.
She had to admit she had liked it when Daddy knocked that woman's hand off him with a hard, fast movement of his arm. It made her think he didn't want that Ilsa as a girlfriend, and that would make Mummy happy. "Not my job, Ilsa," Daddy said in that low, angry voice of his, "not anymore."
"My boss will call your boss, and then it will be your job," that woman told him, which made Daddy even angrier than he had been before. "Your General Beckman will only order your assistance, and we could save a lot of time if you would simply say yes now."
"Have your boss call mine," Daddy had bit out, though Victoria had recognized the tone that said he'd do his best to get to that mean lady he worked for first and talk her out of it.
Satisfied that Mummy wouldn't have to be upset and maybe punch someone again, Victoria had turned her attention to Jack, who was staring into the little window where they kept a different kind of python than the one he'd first stared at. She continued to listen to Daddy and that woman while she watched him.
"Casey—"
"We're through, Ilsa," he had said, and then he had come over and scooped up Jack. Victoria had envied her little brother since Daddy didn't pick her up as often as he used to do. Jack protested when Daddy took them out of the reptile house. Victoria wanted to ask questions about that woman. She had heard enough to know Ilsa was probably a spy, too. Her mum was retired from spying, and sometimes Victoria wished Mummy still spied so Daddy didn't have to work with people like that Ilsa or that Carina Miller.
Of course, there would be no one to take care of her and Jack if Mummy went back to spying. Victoria didn't know about Jack, but she kind of liked having Mummy at home all the time, especially when Daddy had to go away to do his job.
"Do you think Ilsa might be the woman you saw?" her grandfather asked.
Victoria shook off the memory of that zoo trip and thought about it. "She looked kind of like her, but I'd have to see her again to be sure."
As she watched, Uncle Chuck sat beside her. He looked upset, but then Aunt Ellie was his big sister and Clara was his niece, so she thought he probably felt as bad as she did about Jack. Grandpa V. H. said he'd see her that evening and told her to hug her mum for him. When she promised to do so and hung up Daddy's phone, Uncle Chuck looked at her.
He seemed really sad. Victoria wondered if Jack missed her like Uncle Chuck was missing his big sister. "Are you okay?" she asked, mainly because that's what Mummy always did when Victoria was sad.
Uncle Chuck's smile wasn't very big, and his face didn't light up like it usually did when he smiled. "Are you?" he asked.
Victoria nearly told him he wasn't supposed to answer questions with other questions, but she didn't. "Do they know how to get them back?"
As she watched his eyes go darker and his face pale, Victoria knew the answer before he told her. "They have some ideas about where to look."
That meant no, Victoria thought.
"Victoria," Uncle Chuck asked, "did you see the other men?"
"Other men?" She didn't remember any men except the one she seemed to have described a hundred times to a bunch of different grownups.
"There were four men besides the one you saw," he told her.
Thinking hard, Victoria tried to remember who she had seen in the store—because she was certain she'd seen no one else following them. There had been some mums and kids, some people she figured were college students, and some other grownups who had been busy shopping. She would need to know more about the additional men before she could tell Uncle Chuck anything, so she explained that to him.
Before Uncle Chuck could say anything, though, Daddy was back, and he looked both mad and worried. He went straight to Mummy, said something to her, and then they came over to Victoria. "Ready to go home, kiddo?"
She was about to ask why they were going home, why Daddy wasn't going after whoever took Jack, but then she thought maybe he was making sure she and Mummy got back to their house safely before he did. Victoria nodded, and Daddy held his hand out to her. He looked at Uncle Chuck, who had stood when Daddy walked up. "You and Walker are going to have to go with a couple of FBI agents to your sister's house," he told Uncle Chuck. "They have to search the place."
Uncle Chuck spluttered a minute. "Why would they search Ellie's house?" he demanded. "It's not like any of us kidnapped them!"
Daddy's voice dropped, and he said, "Because, numbnuts, they're the FBI, and it's what they do best. Walker knows how to make sure they don't look too closely at anything they don't need to see, but we're going to have to let them do it."
"Why aren't they searching your and Mariah's place, then?" Uncle Chuck asked.
"They are," Daddy growled.
That made Uncle Chuck blink. "But you're the superspy!" he said. "Don't you have immunity from suspicion or something?"
As soon as he said it, Uncle Chuck went beet red.
Daddy's jaw tightened, and he looked like he could murder Uncle Chuck. Victoria couldn't help wondering why. Well, why this time, because Daddy sometimes looked at Uncle Chuck like the happiest moment of his life would be getting to kill Uncle Chuck. It was really kind of scary, and it always made Victoria glad Daddy never looked at her like that. "You get a head injury, Bartowski? Lobotomy maybe? Laudanol ring any bells?" Daddy demanded. Uncle Chuck looked like he wanted to run, but he held his ground. Victoria was pretty sure she was missing something. "We're all suspects until we're ruled out. It's how the game's played."
Victoria frowned, wondered what kind of game the grownups were playing where Jack and Aunt Ellie and Clara were stolen. She didn't like this game because it scared her and her mummy, and that wasn't nice at all.
"But we have alibis!" Uncle Chuck protested.
"Doesn't mean we didn't have it done, Bartowski."
Frowning even harder, Victoria wondered why anyone would think Daddy would have someone steal Jack—or Uncle Chuck would steal his sister and niece. Anyone who knew them would know they wouldn't do anything bad to the people they loved. As soon as she thought it, she realized that was the problem—they didn't know them.
Daddy dropped her hand and put an arm around Mummy when she crossed to them, and then Mummy took Victoria's hand. Daddy's FBI friend was there, and he walked in front of them to the store doors. When they stepped outside, there were several agents who walked to a big, dark SUV with them. Victoria heard people shout questions, but Mummy and Daddy ignored them. Mummy walked with her head down, her face white, and Victoria saw that Daddy's arm tightened a little around her. He put Mummy in the back seat and then lifted Victoria up on the seat after her before he closed the door. He got in next and drove the car a little way and out from the side of the building so that the FBI man could get in the other front seat.
Mummy gave Victoria a wobbly smile as they drove out of the parking lot. Victoria thought she looked like she would start crying any moment, but she didn't. Victoria reached over and took her hand. Mummy squeezed it, and her smile wobbled a little less.
They drove past a bunch of people being held back by the police, and some of them had cameras. "Vultures," Daddy growled quietly as he turned onto Clark to take them home.
There were people waiting for them at their house, and since they all wore badges that looked like the FBI man's, Victoria assumed they were FBI agents. Daddy and Mummy took her through to the kitchen, but just before Daddy went with his friend to search the house, Mummy had said, "John," softly. Daddy stopped, and Mummy said something to him so quietly Victoria couldn't hear. He nodded, quickly kissed Mummy, and then left them there. An FBI woman stayed behind with them.
Mummy asked the woman her name, and she told them it was Mary Branton. Mummy asked Agent Branton if she wanted something to drink. The woman said no, but Mummy filled a tea kettle with fresh water and put it on the stove. Victoria noticed her hands shook a little while she did it. Then Mummy asked the agent if she wanted to sit, but the woman shook her head no. Mummy sat at the table, and Victoria took the seat next to her.
While they sat there and waited for Daddy to come back, the silence began to bug Victoria. She began to think through how she might help Daddy find Jack. She thought about the apartment buildings on the street behind the store and the kids from school she knew who lived there. She wondered if she could ask to go play, could go see one of them and ask questions. Maybe one of them saw Clara and Jack and Clara's mum being taken away.
As she watched the FBI woman study them, it occurred to her that they might as well be under arrest, that she wasn't going to be allowed to go anywhere—or at least anywhere alone.
Plan B, she thought, though she wasn't sure what her backup plan would be. Daddy said every operation should have a Plan B, though, so she needed one. Finally, she hit on Skype or FaceTime. Facebook would be easiest, but a lot of people got on it, so they would be able to see what Victoria was asking and what her friends said in response. If the people who had Jack and Clara and Aunt Ellie saw, they might be in more trouble. Skype or FaceTime might be more secure.
Mummy and Daddy didn't like her being on social media, though. They worried someone who didn't like them would find her, especially since she looked a lot like Mummy, so she didn't post pictures or anything like that, and she never talked about her Daddy because he was a spy and because he had told her not to in case bad guys saw it. She didn't talk about Mummy, either, or Grandma Ariel or Grandpa V. H. because her grandma was famous and her grandpa was a spy, too.
E-mail was for old people, so she ruled that out, especially because she knew Daddy's work read people's e-mails.
She wondered again whether Skype or FaceTime was secure, but then she decided she'd just have to risk it. After all, if her friends saw anything, the sooner she knew, the sooner she could tell Daddy, and the sooner he could find Jack.
If it weren't for the FBI lady, Victoria would get a notebook and start making lists. She liked lists. They helped her remember everything, and they helped make it easier for her to see that she wasn't missing something. Victoria was certain the FBI lady was there to make sure they stayed where they were.
When Mummy's teakettle whistled, she asked Victoria if she would like some tea. She shook her head. Mummy asked the FBI woman, but she said no, too. Mummy spooned loose tea into a metal thing, put it in a cup, and poured boiling water over it.
Victoria studied Mummy, thought she looked stiff. She watched Mummy hug her tummy like it didn't feel good, and she worried. Sometimes Mummy had problems breathing, and it usually happened when she was afraid. Mummy looked kind of like she did one time when something bad happened to Daddy. She had looked like she couldn't breathe at all, and she had shaken and sweat. It had scared Victoria badly because she thought Mummy might suffocate, but after a long time, she was kind of alright again. Mummy said it was anxiety. No, Victoria remembered, an anxiety attack, but she remembered thinking at the time she hadn't seen anything attack her mum.
She had never told her Daddy about that because he worried about Mummy too much.
Victoria relaxed when Daddy finally came back in the kitchen. Mummy stood by the sink, having just put a little sugar in her tea. He handed Mummy a pill bottle before he took the seat Mummy had been sitting in. Mummy got a glass and filled it with water before she took some of the pills. The FBI woman narrowed her eyes as she watched Mummy take the medicine.
When Mummy came back to the table with her tea, Daddy caught her hand, pulled her in his lap, and Victoria smiled. They did that a lot. Daddy liked to touch Mummy, and her mum was always more relaxed when he did. Victoria noticed he sat Mummy down so her back was to the FBI woman who used the opportunity to look at what Mummy had taken.
If Victoria had expected they would talk about Jack, she was wrong. Instead, Mummy told Daddy she didn't know what they'd eat because she hadn't got the groceries after all. Daddy said it didn't matter. They'd find something. Victoria was kind of hungry, but she wasn't sure she could eat anything because she felt kind of sick to her stomach. She realized that was because she was worried about Jack.
Mummy told Daddy they could order out later, she supposed, but Victoria couldn't think about food. Instead, she began to wonder if whoever had Jack was hurting him. She wondered if Jack knew where the vulnerable parts on people's bodies were and how to hurt them so he could run away. It was getting dark outside, so she wondered if he would be able to find somewhere safe if he did get away.
But he was only two, and in Jack's world, bad things didn't happen. Mainly that's because none of them let him know bad things happened. He fell down and got hurt sometimes, but nothing truly bad had happened around him that Victoria knew of. This was the first time anyone had tried to steal him, and it made her kind of mad that the first time someone tried, they got lucky. Victoria was determined that no one else would get lucky if they tried to take her brother again after they got him back.
"Are they searching our house because they think Jack's here?" she asked her Daddy when there was a lull in their conversation. Daddy had distracted Mummy by talking about Christmas, but Victoria had tuned it out to think about what to do about Jack. Now, both her parents looked at her. She didn't think it was a strange question because she heard a news story once where a man said his son had been kidnapped and they found him a few days later in his dad's basement.
Mummy looked at Daddy, who looked back at her. "They have to make sure he isn't here, Victoria," he agreed quietly, "but they also have to look for anything that might indicate one of us had something to do with his disappearance."
She screwed up her face after thinking that through. She thought Daddy might be right: the FBI was pretty dumb, especially if they thought any of them had anything to do with Jack getting stolen. "We didn't take Jack, Daddy, so why would they think we did?"
This time Mummy answered. "Because a lot of children who are taken are taken by someone they know or by someone in their family. If it's family, though, it's usually a noncustodial parent."
Victoria tried to puzzle that out. The only thing related to custodial she knew was the man who fixed things and cleaned her school, so that didn't make a lot of sense because he was a nice old man and because she knew non meant not, so a parent who didn't clean didn't make any sense to her. Then again, she knew kids got taken away from their mums and dads if their houses were really nasty, so maybe that was the kind of parents Mummy meant. She'd have to look that up later. "What happens when they don't find anything?"
Daddy's friend was back before he could answer that, and there were two different women FBI agents with him. Victoria watched as they were introduced, and then another FBI man came in and was introduced. Victoria didn't like him at all, and when he went out their back door, she considered whether or not she could get past him if she had to follow up on anything she learned online later.
Daddy and his FBI friend talked a little, and Daddy's friend told Mummy not to go anywhere or let Victoria go anywhere. She narrowed her eyes at him and decided that if she had to go ask questions of her friends or see something, she'd just have to figure out how to get out and go do it.
Motioning to Daddy, his friend nodded at Mummy, who let Daddy up. They left the kitchen, and Mummy sat where Daddy had been. "They will find Jack," her mum assured her. "It's just a matter of time."
When Mummy hugged her, she felt a little better. Mummy seemed to relax a little, too.
-X-
Dietrich was giving Casey his own hard stare when he hung up the phone after V. H. promised to send the information on Quinnell immediately.
"National security," Casey said, handing Dietrich's phone back to him.
"Bullshit!" the other man snapped back.
"Alright," Casey agreed tightly, "international security."
Dietrich crossed his arms and cranked up a brow. "All I need to know is the full name of the man you recognized who's part of my case."
About to ignore him, Casey paused. It was true Warren Quinnell was on Casey's very personal treasonous scumbag list because of Riah and because of the man's connections to the Ring, but it was also true that Quinnell was involved in a very personal case on which Dietrich was running point. Casey would have to tell him, so he did. He further promised that as soon as he had the files from V. H., he'd share what he could.
Somewhat mollified, Dietrich nodded. "You know we have to search your house—the Woodcombs', too—and set up surveillance in case they call in a ransom."
Casey sighed. He'd forgotten about that part of this kind of case, though he strongly doubted there would be a ransom call. It was far more likely they'd never hear from whomever took them, especially if the Intersect really was at the bottom of it. To contact them, after all, might give them actionable information they could follow up on and could possibly lead them to them. Nonetheless, Casey would have to give Dietrich's team access and play as nicely as he could within the law and within the government's secrecy policies.
"When you do ours, part of the search has to be supervised because of what I do and the presence of sensitive information." Dietrich nodded his understanding. "You can tap the landline, but there'll be no monitoring our cells or our computers." Casey waited for the other man's nod; for a moment, he thought he wouldn't get it. If he had to, he'd barter on Riah's phone, he decided as he waited, but his was a definite no-go. He supposed he could have his agency forward any recorded calls Dietrich needed if it became necessary. "I'll put up with an agent or two underfoot, but they stay out of the way. If my boss decides our people take over, then they're out."
Dietrich looked like he wanted to object, but he huffed a sigh and agreed.
With a sigh of his own, Casey said, "Let's get this done." After all, there was little more to learn in the store.
He drove Riah and Victoria home, Dietrich riding shotgun, while a couple of FBI agents took Walker and Bartowski. Walker was going to the Woodcomb house to do what needed to be done while Bartowski went to the hospital where he could intercept Woodcomb, who was, according to the hospital, still in surgery. They didn't need Captain Awesome blindsided by any press who might have learned who had been taken, after all.
There were three FBI cars illegally parked on their street and six agents waiting when they got home. Curious neighbors stared out windows, stood on stoops. Casey figured Beckman was going to blow several gaskets because he doubted they could contain this. With any luck, though, Beckman could convince the media that it was a national security issue and that coverage was to be limited—no names, no footage that showed Casey or his family, Bartowski, or Walker, let alone where they lived. He suspected a new team of agents would be working to get in place by morning on his operation, and he grew even more certain of that when he watched a news van pull into the other end of their street. There had been three news teams and a gaggle of other reporters at the store, all of whom he'd ignored. He appreciated the fact that the Chicago PD and Dietrich's people had kept them far away.
With any luck, they would assume he was one of Dietrich's agents and not the father of the missing boy.
He quickly escorted his wife and daughter inside the house and back to the kitchen where they waited while the FBI searched the rest of the house. Casey took Dietrich to the room he used as an office and watched the man search it. Riah had whispered in his ear just before they left her in the kitchen with Victoria, and when Dietrich finished his part of the search, Casey stopped him before they exited. "I need to get something for my wife from our bathroom."
After he locked his office, they walked into the master bedroom where Dietrich waved at the two agents going through the room to continue what they were doing. He followed Casey to the bathroom, watched as he opened the cupboard above the sink and took one of the three prescription bottles from the top shelf. It spoke volumes about what keeping outwardly calm had cost his wife that she asked for the anti-anxiety medication now in his hand, especially since she generally refused to take any of the medications prescribed her until it was too late for it to do her any real good. He handed the bottle to Dietrich, watched the man read the label, open it, look inside, give it a shake, and then close it once more before handing it back. He could read the question in his old friend's eyes, but he didn't explain. They would be doing a very thorough background check into Riah—him, too—he knew, and Dietrich would see for himself.
Once more in the kitchen, he slipped the pill bottle to Riah and sat at the table where Victoria waited. He ignored the agent Dietrich had left with them and talked softly to his daughter while his wife ran water into a glass. Riah's hands shook as she opened the bottle and spilled the dosage into her hand, he noticed, and when she had swallowed the pills, emptied the glass, and set it on the counter, he reached out, caught her hand, and drew her to him. He pulled her into his lap, which made Victoria smile for a split-second, and settled in to wait.
Riah wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder. He put his own arms around her waist. He steered his conversation with Victoria to mundane topics, mainly in hopes that Riah would relax, let the medication do its work. He didn't want her to have a meltdown, didn't want Victoria to see what happened to her mother when panic took over.
Victoria, though, was clearly circling the issue. Her little face was pale and pinched, and occasionally she asked a question related to the investigation. For the first time, it began to dawn on Casey that they might have taught their daughter a little too much about the family business. She looked like she was plotting, and given his daughter was a headstrong little thing, he suspected she would probably act. He just hoped she thought it through, or, even better, consulted one of her parents so they could discourage her. The last thing he needed was to have Victoria taken as well.
That would absolutely destroy his wife.
He was reluctant to admit it would kill him, too.
When Dietrich, followed by two of his agents, walked in, Casey and his wife were talking about dinner options. Casey hoped Victoria would let her questions go, would settle in and help him comfort her mother. It was already bad enough that she knew her mother's weakness, but Casey was willing to exploit that if it meant keeping both of them safe while he worked to get Jack back, especially if he didn't need to worry about what his daughter might be up to at the same time.
The two agents who had trailed Dietrich were both female, and the one who had been in the kitchen with his family left as they entered. Dietrich introduced them as Sally Miller and Miranda Kelly. He told Casey and his family the two agents would stay with them that night. He explained that two other agents would be outside—pointed at the man who then entered the kitchen, whom he introduced as Phil Wolinsky—unless Casey wanted his own team there. Wolinsky went out the back door while Dietrich gave him the name of the other agent, told Casey he'd introduce him later, and went on and explained the protocol for answering the phone. Casey noticed he skipped the parts about how to keep the kidnappers talking. Casey and Riah both knew the drill from their own training, and he appreciated not being treated like they were morons.
"Stay in," Dietrich added, addressing his comments to Riah. "Keep your daughter home and inside until this is over. If you need to leave the house for anything, one of my agents goes with you if you absolutely must go out, but I'd prefer you arranged for someone else to run any errands for you."
Riah nodded. Victoria remained silent, but Casey caught a look on her face that meant he'd need to reinforce a few rules for her.
When the other man suggested Casey walk him out, Riah stood and let him get to his feet. He followed Dietrich, and in the foyer his old friend reminded him. "I need the Quinnell information as soon as you get it."
Casey nodded.
Dietrich hesitated. "You might want to close the drapes and keep them closed."
Because his wife was claustrophobic, that would only add to her anxiety, so he was about to tell Dietrich to mind his own damn business. Something in the other man's expression made Casey looked out the high, beveled glass panes set in the door next to where they stood. The vultures had descended, and the numbers were far greater than Casey would have expected.
"The agents out front tell me someone connected your wife and children to Ariel Taylor. There've been calls from several newspapers and one of the networks asking if it's true. We stonewalled them, but there'll be a rupture somewhere, and then the press will be thicker than they already are—more aggressive, too." Dietrich sighed. "We'll push them back to the intersections, but they'll still be able to see the house and annoy your neighbors."
Casey knew the media whores would be aggressive and would definitely annoy the neighbors. It was the kind of sexy headline media outlets loved—daylight abduction of three people, two of whom were children and one of whom was a highly respected doctor, and no known leads. Add to that the fact that one of the children was Ariel Taylor's grandson, and the circus would be the full three rings, especially once Riah's mother turned up in Chicago. He needed to call his boss since it wouldn't take long to connect the dots from Ariel to Casey. After that came the possibility someone would figure out what he really did for a living. "Thanks for the warning."
"For what it's worth, Casey," Dietrich sighed, "maybe you should pack up and go, leave someone here to watch things while you, Mariah, and your daughter hide out in a safe house somewhere."
"Not going to happen." Casey wasn't leaving without Jack, and he knew Riah felt the same way. He also knew they had to make things as normal as possible for Victoria, not that that would prove an easy task with press outside their home and FBI agents inside it.
Dietrich helped him pull drapes on the ground floor, both of them keeping out of sight through the windows as they did so. Casey didn't mind the gloom, but he knew it would make Riah crazy. She had no curtains in the kitchen, so when Dietrich left, Casey immediately headed there to get her and Victoria and take them upstairs. The yard, what there was of it, was surrounded by a wrought iron fence, but he knew the reporters would eventually find a neighbor who would take money for a vantage point, and his and his family's privacy would be invaded whether they wished it or not.
Casey conveniently ignored the ways in which he'd invaded other people's privacy as part of his job. Those scum had been suspects, enemies of the state, criminals, not a family who was only of interest because Jack had been taken by some ideologue who was most likely after a top-secret technology that had repeatedly endangered them all.
They settled in the master bedroom after Casey had his wife and daughter stay in the hallway until he could close the drapes on the row of windows that covered most of the wall. He handed Victoria the television remote and waited until she flopped on the love seat and found something to watch before drawing Riah to the bed across the long, narrow space from where their daughter had taken root. Riah had had a wall knocked out so that their bedroom spanned the width of the house on the end facing the street.
Victoria found and then stared at cartoons. Casey was pretty sure that little head of hers was whirling. He was fairly certain Victoria would be turning the day's events over and over in her head, another trait she shared with both her parents, so he considered how he was going to convince her not to act on any ideas that sprouted in that sharp little brain of hers.
Once he had Riah settled on the bed beside him, he took out his phone. He called Beckman first. His boss expressed concern as he ran through it and what they had managed to learn so far. Riah went rigid when he told the General he'd recognized Warren Quinnell. His wife's face, as she listened while he told Beckman, was agonized. He pressed a soft kiss on Riah's mouth as the General asked if he'd contacted V. H.
Only then did he realize that he hadn't yet checked to see if the ISI files had come through.
Riah had a small laptop on her bedside table. When he pointed, she picked it up and booted it, put her password in to unlock it, and handed it to him.
Casey let her keep the illusion that he didn't know what her password was.
V. H., true to his word, had sent the information. Casey forwarded it to Beckman along with the supermarket video Dietrich's people had sent him as well. Riah recovered her computer while he and the General continued their discussion. His wife opened the files, began reading. He promised Beckman he would talk to Bartowski and Walker as soon as possible. When the General then asked what they had been able to learn from the FBI, he admitted it wasn't much. He was thankful she didn't ream him out for abandoning Walker and the Intersect in favor of his own family. If she had, he'd have quit. He'd already sacrificed precious time by sending Dietrich and sticking to his assignment. That was not happening again—his boss's orders notwithstanding. Not surprisingly, she had some choice words when he told her members of the media had set up shop outside his house.
"Let's hope they don't discover that you are anything other than a Marine officer," she said tartly. "I'll send someone to act as spokesman for your family."
Casey had a feeling the press would assume he was with the FBI unless they learned otherwise. After all, he'd been driving a government vehicle and flashed his badge, though he didn't remember if there had been any press around when he arrived at the grocery. That thought startled him, since it was unlike him not to have it all imprinted in his head. Nonetheless, he was glad to let Beckman send someone to manage the media ghouls.
Riah frowned, having clearly overheard. He knew Ariel would have her own people, and they would have to find a way to convince her to let Beckman's agent take lead. Casey suspected V. H. might have a few instructions as well. "Let's hope that isn't necessary."
"If wishes were horses, Colonel."
It didn't surprise him when she then told him someone else would take over the operation he'd been supervising, but Casey, for once, wasn't going to argue. Getting Jack back was more important, should have been more important at the time Victoria had called him.
For a moment, Casey considered the fact that before his children were born, he wouldn't have given any of that a single thought, and he would now be insisting he remain on his assignment. He wondered if that was because he felt guilty for not having abandoned it or if it was because he was turning into the kind of emotional mush that made him crazy when he saw it in Bartowski.
When the call ended, Riah absently said, still reading the files on her computer, "Isn't it going to look suspicious for a Marine officer and his wife to have a spokesperson?"
Tempted to tell her the assumption would be whoever yammered on their behalf with the press worked for Ariel, he held it back, considered a moment. Then he asked his wife, "Have you told your mother?"
Riah nodded. "She'll be here as soon as she can. They had a show in Seattle."
The past tense told him it had been cancelled. Then again, Ariel was a selfish bitch at best, so it was entirely possible she was, at that moment preparing to go on stage and wouldn't leave the coast until she had finished.
"Emma?"
Once more Riah nodded. "She wants to come stay with us."
Casey thought that was a good idea. Emma was steady, didn't flap, and she always had a calming effect on her sister. She was also fiercely protective of Riah and would be able to help distract Victoria. "Let her."
"Have you talked to Chuck and Sarah?"
He shook his head. "I suppose I need to find out what they've been able to learn."
"Call."
He did. Riah got up, walked over to where their daughter sat, took a seat beside her. Casey watched as mother and daughter spoke, which they did too softly for him to hear.
Walker knew no more than he did, less, in fact, so he caught her up to speed, gave her Quinnell's name and suggested she review footage from the hospital where the Woodcombs worked to see if he'd been there, perhaps had scouted Ellie. Casey would never admit it, but he still clung to the hope that Jack hadn't been a target, had simply been with the wrong people when they were taken. While it was unlikely given Quinnell's involvement, if that turned out to be the case, it also meant Casey's son might be more expendable, a thought Casey would never give voice. He forwarded Quinnell's file to Walker and, belatedly, Dietrich.
Woodcomb, though, was apparently beside himself, and Walker told him Bartowski was trying to deal with his brother-in-law's despair. Casey was simply glad he wasn't the one who had to deal with the other man's emotional distress. Ellie's husband hadn't seen anything unusual, though, and neither Ellie nor Clara had reported seeing anyone or anything out of the ordinary to him. Casey wasn't surprised, knew all of them had become complacent in the intervening years since Stephen Bartowski had been killed, the Ring and Shaw taken down, Alexei Volkoff, too. It had seemed as though once they left Echo Park, the Woodcombs had gone off Bartowski's enemies' radar, and any vigilance the Woodcombs had once had had been left on the west coast.
Of course, that probably had more to do with the government planting seeds that the Intersect project was dead, had failed and was too risky to the human host, along with the news that Bartowski no longer had it. Bartowski still did—or, rather, did again—but this time around, that was probably the most tightly-held, need-to-know secret the CIA had.
Casey rubbed a hand over his face, watched Riah and Victoria, as they watched some pre-tween program on some kid's channel on the television. It was time to think about how to get his son back, time to consider strategy for doing so, and as Riah smiled at their daughter, pressed a kiss to her forehead, it was time to figure out how to keep his wife and his daughter from finding out what he was up to when he formulated a plan and set it in motion.
