This is part 2 of the episode "Quicksand" from Eyal's point of view.
He paced the living room, adjusting his coat and tie once again. They were fast approaching noon. "Window's closing," he called.
"I know how to tell time, Eyal," she answered from the bedroom. They had made a stop before coming back to the safe house so Annie could change into something more appropriate for the high end club.
"I-I'm just saying... Do you think Joan will come through?"
"I hope so," she said hurrying out of the room. She stood in front of him wearing a blue dress that hugged every curve of her body, but that wasn't what took his breath away. It was just her, standing there, with her bare feet. He remembered another time of her hurrying out of the bedroom with bare feet.
The memory of her soft skin under his fingers as he stitched her cut and the brush of skin against his lips as he bit off the thread overtook him as she continued to hurry past him and reach for her shoes. "Do you remember when we were hold up in here before?" he asked finally.
"Of course I remember."
"How did your stitches heal up?"
"There's no scar," she said with a smile and pulling on the neckline of her dress. "Want to see?"
He stepped closer touched his fingers to her shoulder. "Oh yeah. Maybe I should have been a doctor."
"I've had a few scars since then," she whispered.
"Well, I hope the one between us can heal." He turned away from her then so she couldn't see all of the regret written across his face. He was about to change the subject when there was a knock on the door.
When he came back from collecting the case and flowers from the delivery man, Annie was already putting on her coat. "Are we going to open it this time?" she asked with a smile. He set the case on the table and she reached over and snapped the clasps open. She lifted lid and chuckled when the money came into view. He smiled too - just in time.
They pulled up outside the club gates a moment before Omar got out of his car. "There's Omar. Like clockwork," he said. They watched silently as he entered the club with the satchel in hand.
"Let's go," she said.
"You know the, ah, dinning room is for men only."
"Well, you still need someone to keep an eye on the door," she said letting the seatbelt go.
"Look. Come on, Annie. We already know Khalid put a contract on you. Who's to say the courier wouldn't recognize you... Maybe he even told his dad."
"You know I'm going with you no matter what you say," the determination thick in her voice. "Once we spot the courier, how are we going to maintain the tail."
His face fell, for a moment, displaying his worry for her to see. He knew she would never agree to stay back, but it hadn't hurt to try. He reached into his coat and pulled out a small tin that contained two tiny gps sticks called Mosquitos. He quickly explained, to Annie, just how they worked, giving her one in the process.
"We're going to find Omar, watch him do the handoff, and let the mosquito bite," he said giving her a small smile.
They pulled up and entered Club Au Lac together, as a team. After his time as Kidon, he'd avoided working with others. He preferred to work alone with no one arguing with him or reminding him of protocols. But Annie was different. He never had to say a word, although, they did tend to argue...a lot.
After he gave the case of money to the club manager, he and Annie moved seamlessly into one of the rooms, each taking a glass from the waiter. They each scanned the room, looking for Omar or any of his people. Without a word, they left the room began making their way down the hallway and up the stairs. At the landing, he turned to her and she nodded, letting him know that she understood. She couldn't come up to the dining room with him.
Eyal continued up the last flight of steps and took a deep breath. This was it. He would get his eyes on Omar and the courier so that he and Annie could get out quietly and without being compromised.
He entered the dining room and spotted Omar right away seated at a far table. He was grateful when the waiter motioned for him to take the table near the exit. It would give him the opportunity to observe the pass and then slip out quickly after the courier to tag him.
He'd been seated at the table, quietly reading the menu, when the waiter approached with Mr. Ansari's request to join his table. Eyal tried to politely refuse, but Omar had been insistent.
A hundred thoughts flowed through his mind as he made his way to Omar's table. Could he have possibly been made? Had Annie? Would he still be able to tag the courier while sitting this close to the older Ansari? And on top of all that, he wondered if he could get out of there quickly and without suspicion.
The two men greeted each other when he approached the table. Eyal introduced himself with one of his aliases and sat down, ordering quickly from the menu before the waiter could walk away. He hoped he could get the meal and get out as quickly as possible.
The two men chatted, Omar insisting that he knew Eyal from somewhere. When Omar's phone chirped with a text message, they both eyed the phone curiously. "Highly against club policy," Omar said. "One of these days they're going to kick me out." He motioned the waiter over, whispered to him, and handed him the satchel.
Eyal knew his only chance was when the waiter walked by. He tried to reach out, with the mosquito in his hand, but the waiter was too quick and too far away. It was impossible without being made for sure.
"Now then, lets figure this out," Omar said as Eyal pulled his phone out under the table, sending Annie a one-worded message; waiter. He silently hoped she would get it.
"I'm sorry, what's that?" Eyal asked.
"How I know you."
Eyal chuckled nervously, thoughts of being made flooding his mind. He did his best to convince Omar that he was sure there was no way the two men had ever met. A minute later his lunch arrived and their conversation changed to business and Zurich.
After about 45 minutes he checked his watch and apologized to Omar for having to dine and run, so to speak, but he had an important meeting he had to get to. The older man stood and shook his hand. He left quickly, making his way down to the main foyer where he found Annie waiting. He sighed with relief.
"Did you find the courier?" She nodded. "I wasn't sure you got my message."
"It wasn't the waiter that was the courier," she whispered. "It was Megan."
"Megan?" She nodded again. "And you were still able to-" She handed him the hand held tracker where a red dot flashed on the screen. "Well played, Annie Walker." He said with a smile.
Outside two shots rang out, interrupting their moment.
Next to a rental car, Megan lay dead on the cold concrete. He cursed himself. They had know that Megan had been compromised and killed her to keep him from finding Khalid. He quickly snatched the satchel, hoping no one noticed and tugged on Annie's arm. "Come on. We've got to go." He looked back as he retreated to their car and called Annie's name. They needed to get out of there as quickly as possible.
They didn't go directly back to the safe house for fear that they might be followed. They drove around, quietly, checking for tails. They made a various stops, including getting more clothes for Annie. She had only the dress she was wearing and the clothes she'd arrived in, both of which she felt she could not wear any longer.
When they got back to the safe house it was dark outside. Annie went straight to the bedroom to change. It had been a long day and they both needed a little bit of space.
He slid off his coat and draped it across the back of living room sofa. He loosened his tie and added it to the coat. He unbuttoned the top and rolled the cuffs of his sleeves up. He sighed feeling a bit more comfortable.
"Annie," he called as he picked up the satchel he'd left on the dining table, "I'm out to the balcony."
"Okay," she called back. "I'll be out in a minute."
As he walked by the bedroom, he glanced inside. Across the room, the mirror reflected her buttoning her shirt and for a moment he glimpsed the scars on her chest; so close to her heart. The moment took his breath away, again. He'd known she'd been shot and had nearly died, but it hadn't seemed real. Until now.
He wanted to protect her, at that moment, from any more scars, physical or otherwise. And even more importantly, he wanted to do anything he could to heal the rift between them.
He continued out to the balcony before she noticed him watching. He'd just set the satchel down and was beginning to go through its contents when she followed him out the glass door.
She was standing by the railing when he muttered in frustration, "Nothing. Don't get me wrong. There is 250k untraceable euros in here, but no leads to get us to Khalid. They must have clocked us and had Megan killed."
"She was never going to listen to me. She was in love."
There was a note to her voice that he couldn't quite figure out. "This wasn't your fault," he said carefully.
"I know that," she said sitting down on the balcony sofa. "She had a chance to get herself out. More than one. She refused my help. There's nothing I can do about that." Her answer took him by surprise. "What?"
"Nothing," he answered. "I agree with everything you say, I've just never heard you talk like this before."
"Yeah, well, I haven't felt like this before. But I've learned a lot since the last time we were here. Not everybody can be saved. It's not my job."
He couldn't help but feel guilty. She really had changed and it hurt him to know that he'd helped cause the change. He moved over and sat next to her on the sofa, nudging her shoulder affectionately with his own. "Please tell me you didn't take everything I said in West Virginia to heart. Your empathy is one of your greatest talents. Don't ever lose that. You never know when you're going to need it."
The sadness in her was written all over her face. He wished he could say anything to make that pain go away. He was about to say more, when the sound of stopping cars startled them both. He shot up from his seat and ran to the railing, pearling over the edge. "They know we're here," he said, breathless.
"We're five stories up. There's no way out of here."
"No," he said, his mind racing. "We can climb down to the next balcony."
She grabbed the satchel and ran to the railing. In that instant he knew what had to be done. He retreated back inside, closed the balcony door and locked it. He pressed his hands to the door frame and took a deep breath, steeling himself for would happen next.
Annie must have heard the lock click because suddenly she whirled around and ran back to the door, pulling at the knob, trying to open the door. "Eyal," she called through the glass, pain and shock in her voice and written clearly on her face. "Eyal. What are you doing?"
"There's still one way out of this," he said pulling the last mosquito from his pocket, avoiding her eyes. "Go, Annie," he said just before sticking himself in the thigh. He looked at her again, maybe for the last time, and nodded for her to go.
He turned and tossed the tin that had held the Mosquitos into a open doorway and ran to the front of the apartment not looking back.
Stay tuned for the next chapter: Eyal in captivity. It will be posted sometime before "Lady Stardust" airs on Tuesday.