No Hidden Fi
Chapter 22
Fi sat in Pearce's office, facing her from across the desk.
Pearce was updating Fi as to the status of the mission. Roberto was still in the hospital, but he would eventually be fine. Sam leg had been set and was healing well. Michael had been evaluated and sent home. All the rogue CIA agents had been rounded up—those that were still alive, that is—pending trial.
And Gideon Hunter, aka The Butcher was safely back in jail, satisfying both sides. The CIA had retrieved The Great Gatsby book among his possession, but unfortunately, no microfilm had been recovered inside of it.
"Congratulations on your completed mission, Fiona," Pearce announced, "You've really gone above and beyond our expectations."
"I suppose," Fi sighed.
Uh-oh.
"Anything the matter, Agent Glenanne?" Pearce would keep it professional.
Fi sounded a little disappointed, "It's just...although Hunter is where he belongs, I didn't quite complete my mission, did I?"
"Missions never run smoothly," Pearce was already thinking of her next appointment as she looked at her watch.
"Yes, I know but it's just that I was not the one who got hold of that Great Gatsby book," Fi sighed again, "Hunter just turned it in, like it was a library book or something."
No time for this, thought Pearce.
"It's the end result that counts," she pointed out.
For you, maybe," Fi thought outloud, "But I just...felt I wasn't successful in my first mission."
"Look at it this way," Pearce comforted, "Be grateful that you were able to utilize your shooting skills."
Fi perked up slightly,"yes, I suppose I did use a fair amount of gunfire, didn't I?"
"You did at that!" Pearce smiled
Sometimes Pearce knew just the right thing to say.
"Anyway," Pearce continued, "I know you are anxious to get out of here, so I won't keep you long. We just need to have an account of this mission on tape."
"I won't ever forget any experience where there is shooting involved," claimed Fi.
"…Nevertheless, "Pearce continued, electing to ignore the interruption, "we need to immortalize this on tape. We want to make it official."
"It was official the minute I pulled out my assault rifle," Fi nonchalantly stated.
"…and this is the perfect time to buzz Tom in with the recorder!" announced Pearce, quickly as her assistant, Tom Wright walked in with the recorder and placed it on Pearce's desk.
"Hello, Miss Glenanne," Tom looked at her admirably, "I must say, we've been excitedly following all your activities…your file doesn't do you justice!… I hope the tape recorder won't make you feel too self-conscious?"
"No, not unless it can shoot out bullets," said Fi.
"And look, the recorder is on," reminded Pearce, as she pushed the button.
Pearce then gave a half hearted smile to Fi, "Now, Fiona, let's begin with your account of when you spotted Gideon Hunter."
"The first time was at the square," Fi recalled, "that's when I got separated from Sam, who was the sex tour guide,"
"W-what?" Pearce asked, as she quickly reached over and turned off the recorder.
"Yes…at the church…" Fi said as if that was perfectly normal.
Fi then reached over and pressed the "on" button; Pearce turned it "off".
"Wait…Sam was a sex tour guide—inside a church?" Pearce looked questionably at Fi.
"No, of course not inside the church!" Fi answered much to Pearce's relief, "that would be sacrilegious! He just talked about sex on the stairs."
"Agent Glenanne," Pearce tried to stay compose, "Please keep to details that pertain only to the mission. And have it coherent so it makes sense."
"So only about the mission?" Fi blinked quickly.
"Yes. Short but precise."
Fi nodded. Pearce turned back on the recorder.
"Tell us about your mission, Agent Glenanne.
Fi looked up at the ceiling to think, "Simply put, then, my mission was to get a book and at the end, I was able to use my Mossberg pump action shotgun."
Then she reached over and turned the recorder "off", a look of satisfaction on her face.
Pearce stared evenly at her, "Agent Glenanne, your narration needs work."
"Too many details?" Fi asked, "Perhaps I should give you the short version."
"The short ver-…uh, let's take a pause here...perhaps we are going about this all wrong," Pearce said, giving up on the recorder, electing to memorize everything instead.
"Not we are going about this all wrong," claimed Fi, "For I am rarely wrong."
Pearce rubbed her temples.
"You seem to need a break, Agent Pearce," Fi observed, a concerned look on her face.
"I need something," admitted Pearce, as she reached in her drawer and produced two aspirins. She thought better and added another aspirin to her hand.
"Agent Pearce, let me ask you a question…" Fiona began.
Pearce sighed. She took her medication with water and then added one more to what she had already taken, "Whatever could it be, Fiona?"
"I've noticed you've carefully avoided discussing the part of my mission regarding Nemo's Bookstore. Any reason for that? Whatever happened to Agent Benjamin McGrath?"
Pearce and assistant Tom exchanged nervous glances. They had felt there was no need to mention Agent McGrath to Fi, but now they would have to explain.
"I'm sorry you had asked about Agent McGrath," remarked Pearce, "Not everything turned out happy in this mission. Unfortunately. He is dead. Agent McGrath was murdered on the seventeenth of June. We suspect it was Hunter, but that point is moot being that Hunter is already spending the rest of his life in prison."
For the first time Fi looked bothered, "That is very sad news."
Pearce nodded sadly, "Fortunes of war, I'm afraid. All our agents know the risk."
"Agent McGrath was a good man," Fi reminisced, "For a time at the bookstore, I had actually bonded with him, you know."
With Fi's last words, Agent Pearce suddenly became very still. Quickly she turned the recorder back to 'on'.
"Fiona, " Pearce had to work to compose herself, "how could you have possibly bonded with Benjamin McGrath when you had never met him?"
Fi had forgotten the small fact that she had not exactly followed orders and had met up with McGrath the day before. Well, it really didn't matter now, Fi surmised, shrugging her shoulders.
"Actually I had met him," she admitted, "I had gone there a day earlier to…do…recon. So I dropped in and spoke to him a while. He was pleasant."
Pearce could barely keep her voice even, "What did you two talk about?"
"Talk about?" repeated Fi, not understanding, "I suppose, mostly about his clown fish. Why?"
"Fiona," Pearce said, trying to calm herself, "Two days before you had arrived in Tampa, we had sent a coded message to Agent McGrath, giving him your description. He had been expecting you."
Fi's eyes became round as she tried to absorb the words, "So he knew who I was the minute I entered the shop?"
Pearce nodded, "Yes."
"Does it change anything?" Fi asked.
"It could," Pearce said, as she watched Fi carefully, "being that the microfilm had never been recovered. We've already taken apart that bookstore and it wasn't with Hunter and he won't tell us where he hid it."
Pearce checked to make sure the recorder was on before she leaned over to Fi, "Agent Glenanne, tell me everything that happened on your visit with Benjamin McGrath."
Fi described her initial visit at the shop with the real McGrath, ending with, "…and then a customer walked in and I purchased the book 'Emma' and left…so then I-…oh, wait, the book…"
"…the book…" repeated Pearce as she leaned forward.
Tom scowled, "the book?"
"Yes, the book." Fi's eyes brightened, "How could I have forgotten? McGrath was the one who had recommended 'Emma' to me! Surely there was a reason he picked that book for me? Do you think there's a chance…"
Pearce sat up, her voice filled with suppressed excitement, "We've got to get our hands on that book!"
Fi started opening up her pocketbook, "I have it right here."
Pearce stared at her in astonishment, "Y-you have it here? You've been carrying it with you all along?"
"Well," stated Fi, as she handed the book over to Pearce, "It's a good read and the spy business can be very boring at times…"
Pearce took the book from Fi and reverently placed it on her desk. She then opened it and proceeded to run her hands carefully over the outside and inside of the book, feeling for any bumps. As she flipped to the back inside cover, her hand suddenly stopped when she felt a slight bump.
She then slowly looked up at Tom and Fi, a look of satisfaction on her face
Tom peered over, "...the microfilm?"
"Can't be certain, of course," Pearce said, "but if this bump I'm feeling is what I think it is, Fi, your courier mission had been a resounding success and Hunter didn't have the last laugh after all. "
"…a success," Fi repeated, looking pleased.
Pearce handed the book back to Fi, "When we raided Cade Estes' compound, we found all the records we needed regarding the names of double agents. We actually don't need the microfilm, but it's nice that it was recovered. Why don't you just take your book back. We won't be needing this."
"Was Agent McGrath married?" Fi seemed to ask randomly.
At that point, Pearce's eyes saddened, "he left behind a wife and two small kids."
Fi nodded, looking at the beautifully gold-embossed leatherbound book, "It's really a lovely book, one that is meant to be cherished. Perhaps you could give it to Mrs. McGrath. Let her know her husband heroically died trying to deliver this to us."
Dani Pearce's eyes were slightly moist as she placed the book carefully back on her desk, "I think Mrs. McGrath will hold dear the last thing her husband had touched. Thank you, Fiona."
Fi reached over and turned off the recorder, "Is this over? I'm quite tired."
"Of course, Agent Glenanne," assured Pearce, "You've done a lot for the CIA, for this country…we are in your debt…the least we can do for you now is I can arrange to have a driver drop you off anywhere you like…so what is your pleasure? The nail salon? Shoe store? Hardware store?"
Fi smiled, "I'd just like to go home," she said at last.
Peace nodded understandably, "Go home to your man, Fiona."
.
.
Fi was in front of her and Michael's loft. She groped in her purse for the key. It seemed a lifetime time since she had last stood here, and it filled her with a sense of awe that the externals of life could remain so unchanged when she felt so different.
Then her thoughts drifted to Michael. They did not have the time to discuss her decision to work for the CIA. And because she had not told him, the results were that Sam had been shot (and that was a bad thing? she thought for an instant) and Michael had been tortured.
She will somehow have to make it up to him.
She managed to open the door soundlessly. As she entered, she stopped when she saw Michael. He had his back to her, reading another one of his files, amidst a circle of light from the light flickering up above.
Fi looked at him through a shimmering layer of reality, realizing for the first time that many of their arguments consisted of her not wanting him to be a spy and only wanting him to be perfect. But that was an impossible order for anyone to fill.
The issue was not that he wanted to be a spy, but that being a spy was who he was. It was all wrapped up with his persona. There was no separating the two.
Growing impatient with herself and her silly complaining in the past, Fi took her tangled emotions firmly in hand.
"Michael?" she said softly.
At the sound of her voice, he shot up from the barstool, as if someone had jabbed him with a red-hot poker. Fi took a step closer to him, as if drawn by a magnetic force. she felt the slamming of her heart at being alone with him again.
"Fi…" he said her name gently, so affectionately.
She felt her pulse racing and the slamming of her heart a the way he had whispered her name. He did not seem upset at her for going behind his back to join the CIA.
She searched his face for a long moment before she said, "I guess I have some explaining to do."
"Yes," he agreed, "Yes, you do have some explaining to do. Like how it was possible that you almost single-handedly brought down an entire criminal network and the most wanted felon in CIA history. Did I get it all?"
Fi never took her eyes off of him, "don't forget that I completed my courier mission, too."
Michael smiled, although he didn't quite understand, "I guess it's the little things that count sometimes."
As he took a step forward, Fi felt her pulse heightened, "And you know what the nicest thing about the mission was?" she asked him.
He was so close to her now that Fi had to compose her heart as it began to thump in a mad rhythm.
"What?" he asked, his voice sounding suddenly sensual.
Fi had to tilt her head up, "Coming home to you."
Michael slid his arms around Fi in a now familiar embrace. Wordlessly, Fi went up on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck. She then lightly touched her lips to the corner of his. His lips seemed to burn at her slight contact.
"Hello, Michael, I'm home from my mission," she greeted him softly. In response, a smile pulled up deep from inside him.
"Hope you had a good day at work, Fi," he gently responded as he brought his head down towards hers.
Michael caught her mouth with his, kissing her with undiluted passion. She was luscious and sweet, her small and firm figure caught firmly in his arms. They kissed even harder, straining together, until Fi whimpered in growing agitation.
Somehow Michael managed to tear his mouth away, his breath coming in steam gusts as he heard the jerking rhythm of her breathing.
He then released her, although his smile never left his face.
"What is it, Michael?" Fi said, as she saw he wanted to tell her something.
"I was so caught up in seeing you," Michael stated, "that I almost forgot… a package arrived for you."
"For me?" Fi had to work at composing her breathing again.
"Yes."
He walked over and reached behind the counter. In his hand was a brown wrapped package. Michael came back to her and presented the package to her.
"What is this?" she inquired.
"All I can tell you is that it came special delivery from Tampa," stated Michael, "I believe the returned address states it is from a G. Hunter."
Fi took the package and slowly began undoing the strings and brown paper. The box inside bore the name 'Nemo's Bookstore'" and when she lifted the cover, gasp. Among the wrapped tissue was the book, How to Keep Your Man.
Fi recalled that day when she awkwardly grabbed the first book in the bookstore and it was this very book. When Hunter took note of the title, she had recovered by saying it was for a friend.
When she slowly picked up the book, a card had slipped out. Fi grabbed it and turned it over to read it: I still think your 'friend' will enjoy this book. Gideon Hunter.
Michael scowled at card and then at the book, "Why would he mail this book to you? What could it mean?"
"It means," stated Fi, "that I have just bonded with CIA's most ruthless felon, "
Mike grinned as he looked down at her, "Oh, really?"
"Yes, for bonding is what I do best."
There was a mischievous glint in Michael's eyes as he took her in his arms again and they locked gazes.
"Well, then, Fi," Michael announced, "I believe it now time for us to have some bonding time."
When Michael slanted his mouth over hers once more, he was lost in the sweetness of Fiona Glenanne. Stubborn, feisty, impossible to understand, yet she had become his everything.
And now she had also become his very own little CIA spy.
.
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AND it is finished! Thank you for taking the time to read/review to the very end. Special mention must go to my dear friends PurdysPal, Amanda Hawthorn and Jedi Skysinger. I must have done something right in my life to have them as friends!
I believe this story will be my swan song, or swan story, i guess (at least that's how I feel now!). I'll be leaving this site, but I couldn't go without saying what a pleasure it has been to be part of such a talented group of writers! They have done such a wonderful job of bringing Michael and company to life.
Thanks again!
Please review.