When he returned a couple of hours later, Fiona was waiting for him on the top step of the stairs. Despite the early hour, she looked well-rested and fit. He noticed how the light made her skin glow and brought out the golden highlights in her hair. It was sometimes a struggle not to touch her whenever she was near.
She raised an eyebrow at him as he climbed toward her with the carryout. "You two must be on better terms now. You never bring me breakfast."
"I tried once, but you didn't stick around long enough to eat it."
Her eyes told him he'd scored a hit, which wasn't his intention, but she let it pass. "Did you talk to your new friend? Find out anything interesting?"
Michael squeezed in next to her on the step, shoulders touching, enjoying her nearness while he could. "I found out that we have a new client. We're going to expose the people who're after her to pass government secrets and who're willing to kill to make sure it happens." He gave Fiona the details from that early morning conversation.
"And is she going to help you?" Fiona didn't seem too disturbed by the tale, but you never could tell with her, Michael thought.
He ruffled the back of his hair with his free hand. "I—ah—never got around to asking."
"Uh HUH…." Fiona said knowingly.
"I'll ask Sam if he can find out if there have been any other incidents. If they tried to compromise her, they might have tried it with someone else on the project. They could've left a trail at some point." He stood up and entered the flat, Fiona following.
Suzanna was still asleep, but she woke up, groggy, when she heard them come in.
"I brought you some breakfast," Michael said, holding up the plastic bag. His client looked like she was about to bolt, and he wanted to talk to her while he had the opportunity. "This is my friend, Fiona. She knows about your situation."
Suzanna nodded warily, checking out Fiona, who said sincerely, "I'm so sorry, Suzanna."
"I can't stay long. I have to try to get some money today. I'm almost out of what I was able to get from the ATM before I ditched my card."
"How do you plan to do that?" Fiona asked with interest.
"I have an offshore account that I set up for international payments. The problem is, I poked around a little, and it looks like someone's watching for any activity on it. I used a public library terminal in Tampa for about half an hour, you know, to see what would happen. Three guys in suits showed up, so I bailed."
That concerned Michael no small amount. A response time like that usually meant some sort of government agency was involved.
"Banking isn't really my thing…." Suzanna shrugged. "I don't usually work with bank security systems. That's a whole other specialty area. To answer your question, I'm not sure what I'm going to do."
Fiona looked at Michael. "Why don't you give Barry a call while Suzanna and I get to know each other a little better?" She grabbed the food with one hand and towed Suzanna to the workbench with the other. Michael sighed and punched Barry's number to set up a meeting later.
**
"So, this Barry is a financial specialist?" Suzanna asked as they sat at a café table, waiting for him to arrive.
"Well, not exactly," Michael said delicately. "He's more of a…a…."
"An expediter," Fiona supplied helpfully. "And here comes our expediter now."
The trio watched as Barry wove his way through the restaurant's crowded patio, heading for their table. He eyed Michael and Fiona warily. From past experience, he knew that association with them rarely turned out in a positive way. He started to sink into his chair, when he noticed the third person. His jaw dropped.
"Suzanna Hagen!"
"Shhhhhh!" Michael shushed him hurriedly, scanning the area to see if anyone was paying attention to their table who shouldn't be. "You know her?"
"Who doesn't know Suzanna Hagen?" he asked in an excited whisper. "I mean," he amended, "who in my line of work doesn't know her? You're Athena!"
"Athena?" asked Fiona. "Like coming-out-of-Zeus's-head Athena?"
"Not anymore. That was a long time ago," Suzanna said dismissively.
"Yeah, I get it. You're white hat now. But you're still Athena! You pulled the Times Square thing, not to mention the KGB hack!" Barry said, undeterred.
"Barry, when you're done with the hero-worship, Athena here could use some assistance," Fiona broke in.
"Are you kidding? Anything!" Barry said enthusiastically. "Maybe you could show me some of your moves…."
"Not gonna to show you any moves," said Michael flatly.
Crestfallen, Barry said, "Right. So, why does Athena need someone like me?"
Over lunch, they explained Suzanna's (Athena's) cash-flow problem. Barry was not happy to hear it.
"I don't know….Those are heavy hitters if they're monitoring offshore accounts. That's government stuff. People like that tend to get annoyed when you do an end-around on them." He spotted Suzanna's defeated expression and added hastily, "But I'll see if there's some way I can snoop without setting off any alarms. What do you want, exactly?"
"What do I want? I want my life back," she said bitterly. Fiona eyed Michael over the table as Suzanna continued, "But I'd right now I'd settle for shifting that account to a local one."
They ended the gathering with Barry's fervent assurances that he would contact Michael as soon as he had information. They left soon after, first having to extract Suzanna from a Barry handshake that went on far too long and too obviously.