Author's note: My thanks go out to Janet Hill and Lanie Sullivan, for their help in making this and the following chapter stronger than they originally were.

Francine paced the length of the hotel room that she and Amanda were forced to share. Three hours after receiving the junior agent's cryptic message, she was torn between being furious with her and being worried about her safety if she was indeed following two potential killers. She glanced at her watch despondently and then looked at the phone across the room as if it were taunting her. I should have called Billy an hour ago. If I call him and try to cover up Amanda's taking off on her own and I fail, we'll both get into trouble…but, if I don't tell him that Amanda is out there on her own and she actually is in danger. She shook her head gloomily. How's Lee managed to deal with her doing this over the years? He's taken his frustrations out on Billy and me. She smiled briefly as she decided to call Billy and let the chips fall where they may. I failed to find her on my own and I can't leave her out there on her own if she's in trouble. As she walked towards the phone, the hotel room door opened, revealing an exhausted and disheveled Amanda.

"Thank God, you're okay," Francine gushed uncharacteristically. "What possessed you to run off on your own," she demanded, abruptly switching back into agent mode.

"I had no choice," Amanda replied as she dropped wearily into an overstuffed wing chair. Francine rushed over to check her for injuries, but her cursory examination didn't reveal any.

"We always have choices, Amanda! Why did you blatantly disregard our orders to not do anything beyond observation without authorization from Billy?"

"While I was in the fitting room, I overheard two women speaking in heavily accented English. They were talking about making sure that the speech Queen Noor is giving tomorrow, will be her last. I had no choice; if I hadn't followed them we wouldn't have anything concrete to tell Mr. Melrose, so I went after them. They led me all over Atlanta. I was doing a very good job following them for a while, but then they spotted me when I accidentally got too close."

"What happened then?"

"They started to watch me from down a crowded street, so I pulled a pamphlet out of my handbag and tried to look like a tourist. I pretended to ask a nearby woman for directions and I thought that they bought my ruse. The pair of women that I'd been following were standing just outside of CNN Headquarters; while I was playing tourist they went inside so naturally I went in after them."

"Naturally." Francine raised her eyebrow and sat down in the chair opposite Amanda's.

"We all took the CNN tour. It was really fascinating…we got to see behind the scenes while they were broadcasting; well it's not really broadcasting since you have to have cable to see it. Mother and the boys would have loved it…the boys aren't really interested in news but Jamie is starting to show an interest since he's gotten close to Lee. I think he loves hearing the stories that Lee tells about the faraway places-" Francine's frayed nerves couldn't take any more so she interrupted Amanda in mid- ramble.

"Amanda, while I'm sure that it was an excellent sightseeing experience, could you PLEASE get back to the women that you were following."

"That's just it, Francine, they weren't there to sightsee! As soon as the tour guide volunteered to take questions; they asked the first one. They wanted to know if the queen's speech would be covered live tomorrow; by CNN and other news outlets. I was able to continue to follow them after the tour ended. They went into a MARTA station so I went in after them, parts of it look older than our Metro system, but it seems to have more different lines…" She trailed off as Francine once again looked at her impatiently. "We rode the train into the suburbs and they got off at a station that was near a strip mall. I followed them, at a much more discreet distance, to a gun shop. They went inside…although I thought that they were beginning to look a little skittish…since it was a very small shop I couldn't go in after them."

"So you came back here?"

"Of course not, if I'd come back here at that point we wouldn't know who we were dealing with. I waited until they went back to the MARTA station, and then I went into the gun shop and flashed my badge."

"Oh no, we weren't supposed to make our presence here known unless it was an emergency."

"Francine, I'm not a rookie anymore, I remember what Mr. Melrose's instructions were." She sat up straighter in her chair and looked affronted by Francine's comment. "I flashed my badge very quickly and told the man behind the counter that I was from the ATF."

"You impersonated an ATF agent!" Francine stared at her incredulously.

"Don't look at me that way…one of my strengths as an agent is my ability to think outside of the box. I needed to find out what they bought and who they are since I didn't dare follow them any further. I found out that they bought a handgun and paid cash for it. I leaned on the dealer," she visibly puffed up as she continued, " I convinced him that I was only interested in identifying the women but since they paid cash and Georgia gun laws don't require that he see their ID he couldn't tell me who they are."

"This is awful, we know that they're armed and that they intend to target Queen Noor, but we don't know who they are or where to find them," Francine surmised.

"Not exactly…I still don't know who they are but I do know that they're guests at this hotel," she practically crowed. "I was so exhausted when I left the gun shop that I decided to splurge by taking a cab back here instead of riding the train again. As I walked into the hotel, I saw the women I'd been following walking across the lobby, and one of them had a room key in her hand. We wouldn't know any of this if I hadn't gone off on my own…so you aren't angry at me, are you," she questioned as she looked at Francine uncertainly.