Annie drove like a mad woman to the address that Auggie text her. She had less than two hours to find Avi and get him out of harm's way.
As she drove she couldn't stop thinking about Eyal. He was in prison and he was injured. She wanted to go and help him but she knew he would want her first priority to be Avi. After all, she was his only hope now.
Annie knew Eyal had strong feelings for her but she knew that trusting her to save his son was another matter entirely. There was a difference, a huge difference, between love and trust when it came to their line of work.
If you cared for someone, and they cared for you, then you knew enough about the other that they won't shoot you, literally, in the back. But beyond that there was no telling what the other might do. Every relationship was different.
When Annie had first met Eyal she had known that as her contact he wouldn't shoot her in the back, but beyond that didn't believe a single thing that came out of his mouth. She only trusted him as far as she could throw him.
Then as they met more and more times in the field Annie knew that he had her back. He wouldn't just not shoot her, he would get her out of trouble. He would come to her aid.
Then as they became closer they even moved into the friend stage. An unlikely relationship for spies of competing agencies to have, but just the same, and against all odds, they made it work. They not only genuinely respected one another and cared about each other but they developed trust.
Finally, Annie and Eyal came to love one another. This was a semi-new revelation, at least out loud to the other, but they had known for a while that they would take a bullet to save the other. They were in very deep and couldn't bear the thought of losing the other. At least Annie thought that is where they stood.
The most important of all these developments in their relationship was Eyal's showing of Avi to Annie. He let her see the most vulnerable aspect of his life. The most precious part of his life. A part of his life that almost no one in the world knew about and he had shared it with her, a spy from a competing agency. A spy who he both trusted and fell in love with.
And now, Annie thought, she was going to repay the favor. She was going to show Eyal that what mattered to him mattered to her. They were no longer people from opposite sides of the line, a line they had crossed again and again for one another, but two people standing on the line in unison.
Eyal always said that the current takes you where it takes you, that you shouldn't fight it. The day Eyal made the decision to go out on a limb and show Annie Avi he couldn't have known that his actions would one day save his son's life. But in truth they had, Annie smiled. "What if's" swirled as Annie pulled onto the street where Auggie's possible was listed.
Annie switched into mission mode. She stowed her thoughts for later contemplation and tried to decide her best method of approach.
The house was rather large but close to its neighbors. She could hear children playing outside in various yards and didn't want to be too conspicuous.
She decided to change into running clothes and park on a side street. She then decided the best course of action would to be to fake an injury and walk up to the address as if she needed help.
When she got inside she could get a good look at the place and move from there. Or if they wouldn't let her in, after all they did have a hostage; she could at least disarm whoever came to help her.
She jogged down the street and then took a fall right in the middle of the street at a conveniently located pothole. She got up and then pretended to have a twisted ankle. She limped over to the house and knocked.
She could hear men's voices inside and someone came to answer the door.
A single, well-muscled man opened the door. "I'm sorry. I took a fall outside and twisted my ankle pretty bad do you mind if I use your phone to call a co-worker to pick me up" Annie said in her best high-pitched blonde voice.
The man frowned and looked down at her. "Actually I am a field medic in the Army why don't you come in and we'll have a look at it."
"Oh, thank you so much" Annie said gingerly using her foot and tipsily making her way into the house smiling at the man holding the door open for her.
She noted that there was one other man in the kitchen which was right ahead and one off to the left guarding a door. She assumed that was where Avi was being kept. She could hear two other men arguing just out the back door but couldn't quite make out what they were saying.
"Here, why don't you sit down" the man asked Annie placing a stool in front of her.
"Thanks" she said smiling again "I'm so sorry to impose, it's just that I tripped in that stupid pothole out front and then I heard a pop, and well I figured I better just call for a ride."
"Oh, it's no problem" he said with a hard smile.
Just then the two men outside came back into the room and stopped short when they saw Annie sitting in the middle of the kitchen.
"Joe, what the hell is going on?" the taller of the two men asked.
The man standing at the counter to Annie's left filled in "Ralph" as he seemed to be called about Annie's little accident.
He seemed to get more enraged. "Where do you live?" he demanded.
"Well, I'm new here" Annie admitted "but just off of Route 13, I would say" she checked her special running watch she had remembered to put on "that I'm about 5 miles from home."
He seemed to relax a bit when she acted like the dumb blonde she was trying to portray.
"Alright, well it's nice to meet you…" Ralph trailed off.
"Annie" she replied with a smile.
"Nice to meet you too. So how bad's it look?" she asked Joe who was still working on her foot.
"It seemed like you twisted it pretty good. I can see its starting to swell. I will tape it for you and then give you a ride home. That is if that's okay?" he questioned looking at both her and Ralph.
"Sure" Ralph replied "Tony and I here were just about to go and get some pizza. So you take Annie" he said smiling at her "home and Marco and Nick can hold down the fort."
"Sounds great" Annie said smiling. This just happened to be her lucky day.
Tony and Ralph left to go get pizza, after a brief discussion that they had about an hour to kill, and Joe taped Annie's ankle. Annie figured that she was definitely in the right place.
Joe blabbered while he helped her into the car. She was ready.
She waited for him to get in and then knocked him unconscious. She then zip tied his hands to the steering wheel.
She then quickly hopped out of the car. She was headed for the front door when she noticed a side window had been left open. She decided it would be the easier point of entry.
Just as she was about to climb through she heard movement in the room. She peaked in and saw Avi! He was sitting in a chair with his back to the window. She quickly slid through.
He froze when he heard the movement.
"Father?" he whispered in Hebrew.
Also answering in Hebrew, Annie replied, "No Avi, but I am a friend of your father's. I will be right back okay?"
She waited for him to nod then tiptoed to the door. She inched it open and saw a man with his back to her. She grabbed the hard glass figurine off the nearby dresser and yanked the door completely open, knocking the man who had been standing with his back to the door to the ground, again unconscious.
She waited for the other man in the house, Nick she now realized, to come and investigate. She didn't have to wait long. Again she jumped out, but this time was intercepted. Nick brought a gun up to her chest and Annie launched herself at him. Nick and her got into a struggle for the gun before she was able to choke him out.
I may be small, Annie thought, but I am quick. She then zip tied the men's hands behind their backs and together as well.
Avi watched this unnamed woman with astonishment. When she had climbed through the window he was hoping it was help but hadn't expected to see a woman come to his aid.
Avi then thought about what she had said, that she was a friend of his father's. Startled, he quickly concluded that her words were probably a lie. After all, his father was a spy and spies don't have friends.
Avi knew his father had quit Mossad and he guessed that probably made him many enemies in the agency but this woman was not Israeli. Although she spoke very good Hebrew he had to admit. Then who could she be that she was a friend of his father's? She couldn't. There was just no way. She was probably just here to kidnap him for herself to make money he realized.
He thought his signal would bring his father, the man he had never met. Not some woman claiming to be a friend just to lock him up again. Avi struggled against the bonds.
Annie, when finished tying up the men she had knocked out came running over to Avi. "We have to go now" she told him. She cut the bonds and he jumped up, bolting for the window.
Annie was faster. She grabbed him by the back of his shirt. "And where do you think you're going?" Annie asked in Hebrew, angrily pulling him within arm's reach and grasping his arms.
"Away from you. You just want to make money for yourself. You're no friend of my father. My father has no friends." Avi spat at her trying, futilely, to get away from Annie.
Annie sighed. She should have known that this was going to be difficult. He was too much like Eyal for this to be easy. Speaking in Hebrew again she loosened her grip and made eye contact. "Look Avi, I know your father very well. I will tell you all about him and our friendship. But first we need to get out of here before the other two guys come back" she said pointing at the men bound on the floor.
Avi nodded. He let her led him out the back door of the house and though the yard backing onto the property where he had been held. She stopped just short of a red car.
"Get in" she spoke simply in Hebrew.
Avi looked at her, and contemplated making a run for it. But then again he knew little about this country and could very well just end up back in the hands of those men. He took a deep breath and got in on the passenger's side.
As soon as he was in, she was flying down the road. Then she dialed her phone. "Auggie?"…
Avi heard her speaking in English and when he couldn't distinguish anything went back to thinking. How could he know if she was really telling the truth? How could he trust her? How would he get home? What could she tell him about his father? He knew so little. His mind just continued to race as she got on the highway.
When Annie hung up she looked over at Avi. She hadn't realized but he had a black eye and was moving tenderly. She guessed he had been beaten. Avi noticed her eyes on him.
Annie looked at Avi. "Do you speak English?" she asked in Hebrew.
He shook his head. "Okay, well than we'll just talk in Hebrew okay?" He shook his head again.
"First off let me just introduce myself. My name is Annie Walker. And in case you haven't guessed by now I am an American. Actually I work for the CIA. Not many people know that I do but your father does and I would trust him with my life. Therefore I trust you." Annie smiled at Avi who still was looking at her suspiciously.
"Okay. Well then don't believe me. You can ask your father yourself. We're going to get him right now." Avi eyes widened as he stared at Annie incredulously.
"You are really telling the truth?" Avi insisted. He was surprised that she would just say that she trusted him. She didn't know him.
"Yes" Annie said. She couldn't believe how stubborn he was being. Actually she could. It just ran in the gene pool.
Avi's mind was spinning. He was actually going to meet his father. His real father, the enigma. But how could he tell if this woman, this Annie, was telling the truth?
Avi remembered his father telling him from the time he could speak that he was to trust no one. His father didn't have friends. He shouldn't go anywhere with anyone he didn't know.
He wanted to bang his head against the wall. Here he had just gotten into a car with a woman he didn't know, going who knows where, and he was starting to believe her. He was an idiot.
Then he remembered the last conversation he had with his father. It was slightly different. It was about two months ago when his father had called and given him the same speech at the end of their conversation. They now had a code word.
And if his father's "friend" knew the code word then they were safe to go with. Avi liked this idea because it gave him hope that one day he might meet someone who was friends with his father. But he also knew that spies didn't have friends so it was unlikely.
But maybe, just maybe, Annie knew it? He allowed himself to hope. After all, she had said she was his father's friend…